1NT. 4-3-3-3 hands are my least favourite hands: in fact, I like to take a full point off when evaluating them. You have no tens and nines, so there is no room to upgrade there and the final element to assess about your hand is how the honours fit together. All of your honours are isolated which is a bad factor – generally, honours work better when they are together. Taking into account all these factors, I would evaluate this hand as a ‘bad’ 14 points. You are playing a weak no-trump (1214), therefore you should open 1NT. The playing potential fits in the range and when your partner chooses to pass 1NT, you will finish in the right contract. 25 HCP between the two hands, but very little chance of nine tricks – the usual result will be 3NT going two down. This kind of answer can cause controversy because you have 15 HCP and that does not fit in the 12-14 range. However, 
good bridge players should always use their full hand evaluation techniques – if you do so, your results will improve no end. If in doubt, you can announce 12-14 including evaluation, or perhaps write on your card that you use hand evaluation. However, this all sounds a little patronising, but you must not change your announcement to 12-15 because that is not accurate at all – you are not opening any hands worth 15 points 1NT – only hands that you value as 12-14. 

East Hand ♠ A765 ♥ 92 ♦ 87 ♣ 42

Pass. The general rule opposite a preempt is that 16 HCP is enough to go for game. However, that is slightly simplified because queens and jacks are not so valuable opposite a pre-emptive hand. Your partner’s hand is likely to be short in the outside suits which means you need aces and kings to try to win tricks. You are basically looking for about four quick tricks opposite a pre-empt. Here, you have three tricks in clubs, but the rest of your high cards are likely to be relatively worthless. Placing your partner with six tricks, you have three to add, so you hope to make 9 tricks in spades and therefore should pass. On this occasion, you may well lose four top tricks and a trump, so 3♠ would go one off, but that is better than two off in 4♠. 3NT will make only if the spades break 2-2, otherwise you will struggle to make more than 6 or 7 tricks.

East Hand ♠ AK87652 ♥ 92 ♦ 87 ♣ 42

3NT. North has opened with a weak pre-emptive bid of 2♠. Over weak openings, your no-trump bids should be natural: 2NT would show 16-19 HCP and a spade stop. You should play all the normal systems over this natural no-trump bid, so if you play transfers, 3♦ would show five or more hearts. However, whether you play transfers or not, you should not be contemplating playing in diamonds. When you have a strong and long minor suit headed by the ace, then you should generally favour playing in no-trumps. Your partner has shown all-round strength so he may well have something in diamonds, but even if he hasn’t, you still have a good chance of developing the suit. Furthermore, no-trumps scores a lot more points than a diamond contract. Bid 3NT and cross your fingers. On this hand, you have ten top tricks if the diamonds break normally.

East hand ♠ AK2 ♥ A876 ♦ Q4 ♣ A974

3♦. Your partner makes a weak raise to 2♦: showing four-card diamond support with 6-9 points. You have no chance for game, so passing looks obvious. However, with such a big fit in diamonds, you can be pretty sure your opponents will have a fit too and you should make it difficult for them to come in. If you pass 2♦, North will wonder where all the points are and may borrow a little to make a bid of some sort. Your opponents have a fit in hearts and can make nine tricks comfortably. However, over your raise to 3♦ they are unlikely to come in.

East Hand ♠ 642 ♥ K7 ♦ KQ92 ♣ 6542