Steve Weinstein (who seems to win the Cavendish every year of late) called me last month with an offer. Would I be his partner for a New Orleans regional?

With bridge legends Bob Hamman-Paul Soloway as part of the team, it was hard to say no. I was also curious to see how things were going post-Katrina.

The city seems to be on its way back, but it was obvious how much pain and suffering had taken place. The French Quarter is a beautiful place to walk around, especially in May when the weather was perfect.

But, let's get to the bridge (and I don't mean the one we could see from our hotel that crossed the mighty Mississippi River).

Our team did well--probably as close to perfect without being perfect as anyone has ever come. We won all the knockouts except for one. What was our losing margin? Less than 1 IMP! All the matches were handicapped. We were always spotting the other team a bunch of IMPs. (When Paul Soloway and his 65,000 masterpoints are on your team, you can expect to be handicapped severely.) In the match we "lost," we actually won by 9, but were spotting the other team 9.44. We lost by .44 of an IMP -- my closest loss ever.

Two deals caught my attention for various reasons.

I label them as follows:

1. Sorry pard, I could have held it to 2,000
2. A thoughtful defensive play