Hal writes:

Am I missing something in the description of the protocol, or was the actual protocol perhaps a little different than this?

Oops. I typed too quickly; the posted protocol specified shuffling the entire deck to form message M3. Thus, each player draws from a full deck. While this isn't exactly poker, I'm still willing to play somebody. So Hal's right: the original protocol is different - it's not broken like the one I posted :-) The post to sci.crypt was in response to a bit commitment question. Here, players commit by making public their hashes. Later, everyone can verify when the messages are known. If anyone's interested, send me a notice to elee9sf@menudo.uh.edu. (The server for my other account is acting erratic and I'm considering moving my subscription). /-----------------------------------\ | Karl L. Barrus | | elee9sf@menudo.uh.edu | <- preferred address | barrus@tree.egr.uh.edu (NeXTMail) | \-----------------------------------/