OP's code still only has log2(52!) different binary strings that can be encoded, but they vary in length from 52 to 1378 bits (and are the leaves of a binary tr

OP's code still only has log2(52!) different binary strings that can be encoded, but they vary in length from 52 to 1378 bits (and are the leaves of a binary tree). This is handy for easily encoding sequences drawn from a non-uniform distribution, like strings of English letters, by giving each letter a fixed-length binary codeword. It's sort of flipped from the more common method of giving symbols a varying-length binary codeword (e.g. with Huffman coding) and encoding a fixed-length binary string in a deck of cards (or anything else).