Any Mathematicians or Statisticians Here?

Hello

I have never been very good at maths and trying to figure out this answer has begun to boggle my mind, so any sensible answer would be much appreciated. I am trying to work this out for an article that I am writing. It is not a trick question and I honestly do not know the answer. I've tried looking up a solution on-line but ended up more confused!

What are the odds (or probability) that the following could happen?

• A randomly mixed deck of playing cards (52) is placed face down. You guess what the top card is, turn it over and you are correct. You place it to one side.

The odds of this happening must be 52-1.

• Now you guess the next card, turn it over and you are again correct. You place it to one side.

The odds of guessing this correctly must now be 51-1, as there are now just 51 cards left.

• This continues right down to the remaining 2 cards, when you now have a 50/50 or 1 in 2 change of being correct.

In my mind, as you go down the deck then for each individual guess the odds decrease. But, the cumulative odds of guessing each card in sequence must increase.

Are you still with me?

So my question is: What are the odds of correctly guessing the sequence of all 52 cards in a randomly mixed deck?

I looked at a similar 'problem' with rolling a die and worked out that the odds against correctly predicting the outcome of rolling the die 6 times in succession was 6 x 6 x 6 x 6 x 6 x 6 = 46,656 : 1

However I'm stumped with the card question.

Thanks

KH