
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
In a card game using several playing cards, Xiao Ming is facing away from Xiao Liang, who is instructed to follow these four steps: 
1. Distribute the cards into three piles: left, middle, and right. Each pile must have at least two cards, and the number of cards in each pile must be the same.
2. Take two cards from the left pile and put them into the middle pile.
3. Take one card from the right pile and put it into the middle pile.
4. Take as many cards from the middle pile as there are in the left pile and put them into the left pile.

At this point, Xiao Ming accurately states the number of cards now in the middle pile. What do you think is the number of cards in the middle pile?

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