Question

in a standard deck of 52 cards, how many cards must be picked to be sure that - at least five of them are spades

Answer 1

44 cards

Explanation:

In a standard deck of 52 cards, there are 4 suits each of which has 13 cards. Since we are finding the minimum value to be fully guaranteed of drawing five spades we can assume the scenario as follows:

If the first 39 cards picked are the complete full suits of hearts, diamonds, and clubs, then we know that the next 13 are spades. Since we have to find at least five spades we add 5 cards to the 39 to get our answer of 44 cards to be absolutely guaranteed.