Question about initial conditions of Blindfolded tricks #1 about great-puzzles

[pickten]

It doesn't matter. The reader is assumed to be dextrous enough to know where the cards are, even if the reader doesn't know whether they are face up or face down. Thus, regardless of how they arranged, the reader can put them in any arrangement, so the reader could start out by stacking them if they were dispersed, or dispersing them if they were stacked. As you mention, the face up cards are shuffled in with the others.

[clintonblackmore]

Oh, I hadn't considered that all the cards could be coalesced into one stack, making the initial arrangement irrelevant (so long as you could do it without flipping any of the cards).

[sharkdp]

Very interesting. If you can put puzzles up on github, I suppose issues can be filed against them

👍

Thus, regardless of how they arranged, the reader can put them in any arrangement, so the reader could start out by stacking them if they were dispersed, or dispersing them if they were stacked.

Yes, thanks for the clarification. Would it be better to explain the puzzle as "There is a stack of 52 cards on the table in front of you" (instead of deck)? The ambiguity doesn't really add much value..