Analysis By Stephen Evans BBC North America business correspondent

In the early New York hours, just as its executives were clinching the deal that turned it into America's biggest mobile phone operator, the newspapers were hitting the streets.

What appears to be Cingular's shrewd strategy of breath-taking bluff was there for all to see in the headlines.

The New York Times wrote on the top of page one: "VODAFONE IS SEEN AS FAVORED BUYER OF AT&T WIRELESS".

It continued with a headline in slightly less dramatic lettering: "British Company Signals a Higher Bid, but a Rival Won't Follow Suit".

Or this from the Times in London: "Vodafone edges ahead in AT&T battle".

"One source close to Cingular told The Times: "It's about 70% likely to go against us. Our camp is clearly more conscious of shareholder value than Vodafone," the Times reporter adds.

Or this from the Financial Times: "Although no decision had been formally announced, people close to the situation indicated that Vodafone was likely to have outbid Cingular".

Brilliant bluff

None of the papers quite got it wrong.

What seems to have happened is that Cingular played a perfectly proper, brilliant game of bluff

They all qualified the headlines by saying that the deal wasn't done; it was an auction with no winner yet determined.

But readers might have been left with the impression that Vodafone was on its way to victory.

What seems to have happened is that Cingular played a perfectly proper, brilliant game of bluff.

Its executives and "sources close to Cingular" sent out signals to all parties that their last-but-one bid was final.

Executives walked away and turned off the lights.

No more play.

Smiling shareholders

And then late at night the killer counter-punch: $41bn in cash - and by all accounts a one-minute ultimatum to take it or leave it.

The lesson: auctions - like poker games - aren't over until they're over.

Now, though, Vodafone has tried to switch horses and failed. Is it really where it wants to be?

One big winner of this particular game is clear: Cingular will become America's largest wireless communications company, rather than the also-ran it would have been if Vodafone had triumphed.

The new, combined company will have 46 million customers, able to use their phones in 49 states.

Shareholders in AT&T Wireless will also smile all the way to their banks.

At $15 a share, they will get 26% over and above the price of the shares on Friday - and a 100% premium on two months ago.

There is one winner who wasn't at the table.

Verizon Communications can smile quietly.

Question mark

It owns most of Verizon Wireless while Vodafone owns the minority stake.

So Verizon Communications was on an each-way bet, winning whoever won the actual auction.

As it turns out, Cingular's victory leaves Verizon Wireless as the second biggest company rather than the current biggest - but in a consolidated market with one fewer competitor.

And had Vodafone won the auction, the British company would have had to divest itself of its 45% stake - leaving Verizon Communications with sole ownership of the biggest American operator.

Which begs a question about Vodafone.

It had always asserted that Verizon was its preferred vehicle in the United States.