Cards of Wonderment Math

“One fall night at my Monday Free Roll poker game, somewhere between the flop and the river, I had a revelation: Art and Math aren’t strangers, they’re creative co-conspirators. With help from my friend and fellow player, theoretical mathematician Joshua Siktar (aka the Wizard of Odds), I realized my card deck wasn’t just an art project. It was a probability playground of mindfulness.

Joshua crunched the numbers for my meditation, five-card spread. What are the odds of pulling the same five-word prompts in the same order? A staggering 1 in 1,012,003,200 possibilities. In other words, your reading is almost guaranteed to be one-of-a-kind. And even if lightning strikes twice? Your imagination will deal you a whole new story. That’s the wonder, endless answers, sparked by images and words, one curious question at a time.

Joshua Siktar completed his B.S. in Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon in 2018 and his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Tennessee in 2024. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University, splitting his time between teaching, conducting research, and mentoring undergraduates.”

Kenlyn Stewart