Count decks like Stuey Ungar
I saw a recent video of Doug about Ungar, which also included a reference to the famous prop bet he won to count down 6 decks of cards and name the last remaining card.
You can do that too and impress your friends. Or win a prop bet. Here is my method.
While going through the deck, you need to remember two counters. One for the suit, one for the rank.
Let's start with the suit, the easiest.
Clubs=1, Diamonds=2, Hearts =3, Spades = 0.
For one deck of cards, this sums up to 13*(1+2+3)=78. Start with counter=0 and add up numbers as you reveal cards and their suits.
If after 51 cards the sum is 78, the last card is a spade. 77 club. 76 Diamond. 75 means heart.
You can make things easier and substract 6 every time the counter goes above 6. I'm that case 6=spade, 5 =clubs, 4=diamond and 3 is hearts.
The second counter is for the rank and goes the same way.
Ace=1, 2-10 = their value, Jack= 11, Queen = 12, King = 0.
Every time the rank counter goes above 13, substract 13 to keep things simpler.
After 51 cards the rank of the.last card is determined by 13-sum.
Congrats, you have remembered two numbers and now know the last card.
Practice this twice and you will become confident. You will also quickly learn that Q is most often treated as -1, which is easier than doing +12 and then -13. Similarly the J is usually -2.
GL
5 Replies
I often use this simplified method to impress everyone at the table:
Ask someone to pick a card: that is, any card except a picture card, coz obviously that's too easy.
Turn each of the remaining 51 cards as quickly as possible, adding each card's number up in your head until you go over ten, then drop the tens digit from the count and carry on, etc. Ignore all picture cards.
At the end, the count will be between zero and ten. Take the number from ten. This gives you the number of the card. (If the count is six, there's a four missing.)
Tell the audience you think you've got it but you just want a quick check to make sure.
Splay the cards in your hands for a few seconds, while looking for the three fours remaining.
Announce the correct card to exultant applause, and bask in the adulation.
That's the same principle, indeed.
If you want to impress me, don't count down to one card. Take a single deck and reveal 50 cards, then tell me the last two. Now THAT would be impressive.
Give each card a number from 2 to 104. (It's easier to add even numbers to even numbers.)
Spend as much time as you need to memorise them. (No one will think you would have wasted eight hours of your life in this way, if my experience is anything to go by.)
Turn the 50 cards over, one by one, adding up their designated numbers in your head.
Whatever number you finish with will enable you to work out the sum of two cards' numbers, added together.
Guess two that fit the final number, and call them with a confident flourish.
You'll be right enough times to make money on your bets - as long as you get the bets' odds right, and if you are one lucky summerbeach.
Impressive enough, je pense?
Seems bad. If the sum is like 100 you have way too many options to make a profitable bet.
You can guess the final two suits if you use:
Clubs=1
Diamonds=2
Hearts=4
Spades=8
You can do the same for rank, but you'd better be good a calc, because 2^13=8192
Maybe it's better to something like 1,2,4,10,20,40,100,200,400,1000,2000,4000,10000 for Ace-King, respectively. I think that works and is easier to sum
After this you might already be lucky, if two of the same suits or two of the same rank remain, otherwise it's 50/50.
It was my understanding there would be no math.
