
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system

A psychic is presented with a deck of 36 cards face down (4 suits, 9 cards per suit). The psychic names the suit of the top card, and then the card is revealed to him. After this, the psychic names the suit of the next card, and so on. The goal is for the psychic to guess the suit of as many cards as possible. The backs of the cards are non-symmetrical, and the psychic can see which of two orientations the top card is in. The psychic’s assistant knows the sequence of the cards in the deck but cannot change it. However, the assistant can arrange the backs of the cards in either orientation. Could the psychic have arranged a strategy with the assistant, back when the assistant did not yet know the sequence of the cards, to ensure the correct guessing of the suit for at least

a) 19 cards;

b) 23 cards?

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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