In preparation for a card trick, a certain number of cards are taken from a standard deck of cards.

The trick goes as follows: Cards are taken from the top of the deck and transferred to the bottom, each time calling out a letter in the name of a card, starting with A, then C, then E, spelling out ACE; the next, fourth, card transferred is then shown to be the ace of hearts. This continues, saying "T" for the fifth card, "W" for the sixth card and "O" for the seventh card, and showing the eighth card to be the two of hearts.

Since letters are transferred to the bottom, this continues as many times through this modified deck as needed to have shown all the hearts through the king, and then all the spades, from ace through king.

How many cards from the full deck were used to make this modified deck so as to let the trick work?

I came to the same count as Leming...47, with spelling out the numbers except for the ACE, JACK, QUEEN and KING of each of the two suits, HEARTS and SPADES:

?, 10-h, ?, A-h, 7-s, ?, J-h, 2-h, ?, ?, 8-s, ?, Q-h, 3-h, ?, 9-s, ?, K-h, 4-h, 10-s, ?, A-s, ?, 5-h, J-s, 2-s, ?, 6-s, ?, ?, Q-s, 3-s, ?, 7-h, ?, K-s, 4-s, ?, ?, 8-h, ?, 5-s, ?, ?, 9-h, 6-s, ?

Yet, though the example given by Charlie spells out T-W-O for the 2 of HEARTS, the 2 is often called a DEUCE and the 3 is called a TREY.  Spelling these two cards out will result in a modified deck of only 44 needed cards:

?, 9-h, 5-s, A-h, ?, 10-h, 6-s, ?, ?, 2-h, J-h, ?, 7-h, ?, 3-h, ?, Q-h, ?, 8-s, 4-h, ?, K-h, ?, 9-s, 5-h, A-s, ?, 10-s, 6-h, ?, ?, 2-s, J-s, ?, 7-h, ?, 3-s, ?, Q-s, ?, 8-h, 4-s, ?, K-s

And again, the JACK, in some circles, is known as KNAVE. This deck may not be considered a standard deck, as the KNAVE was represented by a Kn and not the J for the Jack. A modified deck with the DEUCE, TREY and KNAVE will need to have 45 cards:

9-h, 5-s, ?, A-h, 10-h, 6-s, ?, ?, ?, 2-h, Kn-h, 7-s, ?, ?, 3-h, ?, Q-h, 8-s, ?, 4-h, ?, K-h, 9-s, ?, 5-h, A-s, 10-s, ?, 6-h, ?, ?, 2-s, Kn-s, ?, 7-h, ?, 3-s, ?, Q-s, ?, 8-h, 4-s, ?, K-s, ?

To have a deck with a TWO, THREE, KNAVE, one would need to borrow cards from a second deck or use a specialized Tarot deck, such as the modern French-style Tarot deck where the suits are as found in a standard 52-card deck.  This modified deck is comprised of a mimimum of 63 cards:

Q-s, ?, K-h, A-h, ?, K-s, A-s, 2-h, ?, ?, 2-s, ?, ?, 3-h, ?, ?, 3-s, ?, 4-h, ?, ?, 4-s, ?, 5-h, ?, ?, 5-s, 6-h, ?, ?, 6-s, ?, ?, 7-h, ?, ?, 7-s, ?, ?, 8-h, ?, ?, 8-s, ?, 9-h, ?, ?, 9-s, 10-h, ?, ?, 10-s, ?, ?, Kn-h, ?, ?, Kn-s, ?, ?, Q-h, ?, ?

Edited on September 29, 2006, 11:33 am

Posted by Dej Mar on 2006-09-29 10:55:23