[han]

On hand 3 I am not that surprised that exactly half the panel chose not to bid 2NT, but I think they are very wrong. We are not in 3NT yet, there is room. In the meantime, 2NT is the most economical, and notrump should likely be from our side. Bidding notrump first with Qx in the fourth suit is often a good idea.

I think that hand 1 is mostly a matter of style. 80 years ago people were opening 1C, nowadays almost everybody opens 1S. I would just go with my agreement, I think it has little to do with sanity.

Hand 2 was interesting, and I must admit that unlike Justin I had to think about it for some time. In the end it seemed that doubling would just very often lead to bad results. I don't know why so many experts have voted for double, perhaps it is an intuitive "I have a good hand and short hearts so I must double!" reaction. It seems quite unlikely that we have a game on, and we have no idea whether we can beat 3H. I consider 4C a joke of course.