[Antrax]

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Pass is forcing. Do you agree with E/W bidding? What is my call as E?

[han]

Pass.

[andy_h]

Not sure if I "agree with E/W bidding" since I don't know what West has bid with

Anyway I will pass now and see what my partner thinks. However I would have preferred a 4D splinter as my 2nd bid if I was allowed. I understand that splintering with stiff Aces can be a flaw but I feel it's the best way I can get my 4th trump + good hand across on this hand (since 1S says it shows 5, my 3D bid can be all sorts of random hands with 3 card support).

[Antrax]

Yeah, we'll get to those soon, we resumed playing after a long hiatus and partner specifically asked me not to do anything too "clever", as he put it. Also, I think it would've been reasonable of him to expect something in ♥ for a ♦ splinter.
So walk me through this, please. I thought in a forcing pass situation, X means "partner, I have more defense than you might expect based on my bidding", bid means "partner, I have more offense than you might expect" and pass means "no surprises, what do you have"?
Is this correct? If so, don't I have a defensive surprise? What would constitute one?

[Trick13]

I think standard agreements are:

X = let's defend. You might X expecting a big set, or just to deter pard from bidding 5S.
Pass = I think we should bid 5S but my hand is not strong enough to do so on its own.

You might base above decision on your holding in opp's suit:
with xx you might double and with x you might pass.

5S = to play
Pass, then pull pard's X = slam invite
Pass, then pard bids 5S = decision time. Hopefully he would have bid 5H with a control there.

With this hand though I would have bid 4S on my second bid, hoping to avoid decisions like this, and occasionally missing slam. But North will bid 5D and I will regret not having made a more descriptive bid.

[ahydra]

Agree with East's bidding. I would pass next - 5DX isn't a sure set, 5S may or not make, and I'm guessing partner will play me pretty much for the kind of hand I have.

ahydra