You Can Learn to Remember: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life pdfdrive com

turning the tables
A whole book could be written on cardcounting, but here’s a brief summary
of my technique. In blackjack, the greater the concentration of high cards
left in the dealer’s “shoe”, the better the cards to come. To remember which
cards have been dealt, I give each card played a numerical value. Cards two
through six = 1; seven through nine = 0; and 10, ace and the court cards =

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-1. I keep a running total of the values of played cards. Bets must be placed
before each deal, so if the total is greater than +1, I know that high cards
are still in the shoe and I increase my next bet; and vice versa. This
technique is good for a single deck, but casinos use four to eight decks of
cards in a shoe, so a “true” count can be gained only by dividing the
running total by the approximate number of whole decks left to play.
First, we must apply the three keys of memory – imagination, association
and location – in the form of the journey method. A familiar route of 52 stages
will provide a mental videotape on which to record the chance order of all the
cards in the deck. The journey should be especially familiar. Before you even
pick up a deck, think carefully about the journey and establish precisely the 52
landmarks. Run the “tape” of them through your mind over and over until they
are fixed.
Finally, pick up a deck of cards. If you are to be able to remember these
cards in any order, each card needs its own permanent and unique visual code.
Translate each card into a person – people can interact with the stages in the
journey, so they are memorable. Pick out the court cards and examine the faces.
Imagine that each is a person known to you – perhaps the Jack of Hearts
resembles your nephew in some way. If the court cards do not remind you of
anyone you actually know, give them the persona of someone famous.
Next, translate each of the other cards into a person. This is more difficult,
but once you have mastered this particular part of the code, memorizing the deck
will become straightforward – if not, to begin with, easy. Choose an appropriate
letter for each suit: H for Hearts; C for Clubs; D for Diamonds; and S for
Spades. Use the Dominic system to give each number from 1 to 10 a letter.
Having attributed letters to suits and letters to numbers, every card has a two-
letter code: the five of diamonds is ED; the two of clubs BC; and so on. Use
these letters as the initials of a person – either someone you know or someone
famous. For example, ED might be a friend with these initials, while BC might
be Bill Clinton.