How to Remember a Pack of Cards

If only having a couple of minutes to look, could you remember the sequence of a shuffled 52 card deck?

I'm sure the question is now in your thoughts: "Can I really remember the order of a shuffled 52 card deck?" The answer for most people is yes, but some effort is required on your behalf.

There are different ways you can go about doing this, but the method I'm going to write about is the mnemonic word system. This is where each card is assigned a word, so when you see that card, the card will be only the secondary thought in your mind, whilst the word will be at the forefront.

A pack of cards will have four suits: clubs; hearts; spades; diamonds.

To remember the suits, a common word chased is used. If you look closely at the word you will notice the first letters of the suits: CHaSeD (clubs, hearts, spades, diamonds). Each suit has 13 cards (ace, 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, jack, queen, king).

Each individual card is assigned a key word/image (which is known as a 'peg' word). Each word a card is given will begin with the same letter as the suit, for example: clubs - c, hearts - h, spades - s, diamonds - d.

The ending of the word is from the consonant phonetic value of the card, in which the value of the card is sound based. 1 - T or D, 2 - N, 3 - M, 4 - R, 5 - L, 6 - J; Sh; G or Dg, 7 - K or hard G; Ch or C, 8 - F or V, and 9 - P or B.

The ace is given the number 1, and 10 the number 0. It ends in either a S or E.

The Jacks 'peg' word is the same as its suit. Example: Jack of spades would become just spade.

The 'peg' word for queen becomes a word that sounds like queen but has the starting of the suit (except for the queen of hearts).

The 'peg' word for king is (like the queen,) a word that sounds like king but has the starting letter of the suit (except for he king of clubs).

Here are the 'peg' words for each card:

Clubs

• Ace of clubs - cat
• 2 of clubs - coin
• 3 of clubs - comb
• 4 of clubs - car
• 5 of clubs - coal
• 6 of clubs - cash
• 7 of clubs - coke (as in the drink)
• 8 of clubs - cuff (of a shirt sleeve)
• 9 of clubs - cap
• 10 of clubs - case
• Jack of clubs - club (golf club)
• Queen of clubs - cream
• King of clubs -King

Hearts

• Ace of hearts -hat
• 2 of hearts - hen
• 3 of hearts - ham
• 4 of hearts - hare
• 5 of hearts - hail
• 6 of hearts -  hash
• 7 of hearts - hog
• 8 of hearts - hive
• 9 of hearts - hub
• 10 of hearts - hose
• Jack of hearts - heart
• Queen of hearts - queen
• King of hearts - hinge

Spades

• Ace of spades - suit
• 2 of spades - sun
• 3 of spades - sum
• 4 of spades - sewer
• 5 of spades - sail
• 6 of spades- sushi
• 7 of spades - sock
• 8 of spades - sieve
• 9 of spades - soap
• 10 of spades - studs
• Jack of spades - spade
• Queen of spades - steam
• King of spades - sing

Diamonds

• Ace of diamonds - date
• 2 of diamonds - dune (sand)
• 3 of diamonds - dummy
• 4 of diamonds - door
• 5 of diamonds -doll
• 6 of diamonds - dish
• 7 of diamonds - deck (of cards)
• 8 of diamonds - dove
• 9 of diamonds - den
• 10 of diamonds - dice
• Jack of diamonds - diamond
• Queen of diamonds - dream
• King of diamonds - drink (as in water)

When you do shuffle a pack of cards and go through them by memory, imagine the 'peg' word associated with that card and link it to the next card. Slowly creating a 52-step journey through the deck.

Make sure to memorise the 'peg' words very well first, as you don't want to spend an unnecessary amount of energy trying to remember the 'peg' word. When you're comfortable, start trying to memorise the deck. Start with one suit, then when you complete that move onto doing two suits, then three, then the whole deck.

With practice you should be able to do this in a few minutes or less.

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