Thanks for the thoughtful replies, and sorry if the poll result is so predictable. No trick question, I really did bid 7
♥ and of course I regretted it even before the bidding card hit the table.
With such an undistributional hand already described in a pre-empt I would have normally passed the decision over to partner without question, but I didn't trust this partner and was irritated by the opponent and I bid on a silly impulse.
I raised the hand here anyway partly because I thought that discussion of such a situation would be instructive for I&A (people deserve some certainties) and partly because there is an interesting twist to the story: 7
♥ doubled went down only 5, which was the official PAR for the hand.
Here is the full hand:
On closer inspection, 6
♠ (also 6
♦) only makes if played by North, which would have required fairly sophisticated bidding over a pre-empt (2
♥ in our case but at many tables 2
♦ Multicolor).
Out of 63 tables, it appears that at 10 tables NS went down 1 (presumably in slam) and only 3 made 5
♠, nobody making 6
♠. Making the PAR was thus a resounding bottom all the same