What would you bid?

As dealer, this is your hand:

What a monster! But what is the best opening bid?

At the club, most opened with their favourite forcer; 2 clubs, diamonds, or hearts. This got them too high too quickly. Partner made a negative response, RHO jumped in diamonds, and most ended in some number of hearts from ten upwards, losing two hearts and a diamond when partner was void in hearts.

I had just been reading a book of hints, where it said to treat a big hand like starting a love affair: take it easy. With that shape and only 14 points, there is no danger of a one bid being followed by 3 passes, so I opened one heart. Partner, bless her, replied one spade.

RHO tried to make things awkward by jumping to five diamonds, but we had found our fit and I went straight to six spades.

There was nothing to the play. RHO opened the ace of diamonds, and switched to a trump. Partner won the ace, ruffed a heart, back to the king of trumps which drew the last two, and ruffed another heart leaving dummy high.

Partner's 7 points included the queen of trumps, which wasn't needed; and in fact neither were the other 5. In effect, a nice 14-point slam.