A deadly gamble

You are sentenced to be hanged by the neck till death. Arnie (the governor) agrees to pardon you if you can solve this puzzle for him (since he is thickheaded as we all know). You are given a deck of 52 cards in a dark room (so you cannot see the cards). You are told from the get go that exactly 17 of these cards are face up (and the tactile feel of the cards is the same on both sides). The question then is to split the deck into two stacks which have the same number of face up cards.

- Satish