Phone shuffle
 

Three honest players decide to play a game of cards with a 36-card deck over the phone.

They need to deal the whole deck of cards in 3 equal parts, with the cards "face down". How can they do that?

Re: Phone shuffle
 

This isn't specified clearly enough.

Re: Phone shuffle
 

Sorry, I must be stupid, but I have absolutely no clue what you're asking?

Re: Phone shuffle
 

Hang up and get two hookers and an eight ball.

Re: Phone shuffle
 

go fish

Re: Phone shuffle
 

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry, I must be stupid, but I have absolutely no clue what you're asking?

[/ QUOTE ]
I meant, how do they play the game while on the phone?

Re: Phone shuffle
 

Whats so confusing? Hes asking how they can shuffle and distribute the cards so that each person only knows the cards they are personally dealt.

Re: Phone shuffle
 

[ QUOTE ]
Whats so confusing? Hes asking how they can shuffle and distribute the cards so that each person only knows the cards they are personally dealt.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is indeed what I was asking. The deal should be random of course.

Re: Phone shuffle
 

[ QUOTE ]
Three honest players decide to play a game of cards with a 36-card deck over the phone.

They need to deal the whole deck of cards in 3 equal parts, with the cards "face down". How can they do that?

[/ QUOTE ]

is this before or after the advent of camera/video phones?

Re: Phone shuffle
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Whats so confusing? Hes asking how they can shuffle and distribute the cards so that each person only knows the cards they are personally dealt.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is indeed what I was asking. The deal should be random of course.

[/ QUOTE ]

My shot at it in white:

<font color="white">Have each player take a fresh unshuffled deck of cards and lay them out on a numbered grid from 1-52. One player generates a sequence of random simple permutations that he instructs the other players to duplicate. For example, exchange the 12th card on the grid with the 27th card. After a few thousand such permutations the 3 decks will be identically randomly shuffled with the complexity high enough so that noone can follow any card through the process to predict where any of them are. One player takes the top cards, one the ones after that, and the third the ones after that. They are all honest so noone looks at cards he isn't dealt. </font>

PairTheBoard