hobbs play card mnemonic system

STEPHEN HOBBS’ PLAYING CARD MNEMO NIC SYSTEM Stephen Hobbs

Although I don’t consider myself a memory expert, I want to teach you my method for easily and almost automatically creating and remembering key (or “peg”) words for every card in the deck. Having a key word for each card will allow you to more easily memorize a “memorized” deck, to recall large numbers of cards named by a spectator, and with practice to remember the order of a shuffled deck. The traditional method for creating key words for cards involves assigning a different consonant to represent the numbers one through thirteen. The first letter of the suit of the the card is then combined with the consonant that represents the card’s numerical value to create a “key” or “peg” word for each card. Vowels are neutral and are are used between the consonants to form the key word. For example, if the consonant sound for three is “m”, then the word for the three of hearts might be “ham” (“h” for hearts, “a” as the neutral vowel, “m” for three). This system works (many people have made made good money selling this idea), but it has some some drawbacks. It takes time for the association between the card and the key word to become automatic. Until the association does become automatic, a “calculation” of sorts is required (transforming the numerical value to a consonant and then creating the key word). Even after the necessary association has become automatic, it tends to be easily forgotten unless you are constantly using the system. In addition, the traditional approach is very similar to the usual system for creating key words for numbers. This can be confusing when you are trying trying to link card key words to number key words; as is required, for example, when memorizing a full-deck stack. In an effort to avoid the above difficulties (which may, of course, be unique to me), I wanted to devise a system that would allow me to create simple and easily remembered key words that could be recalled without calculation even when I was not using the system on a consistent basis. Here is the result; result; it has worked well for me and I hope it can do the same for you.

Hobbs Playing Card Mnemonic System 2014 © Stephen Hobbs

The Mnemonic System

Because this system relies to a large extent on the sound of the key word, it is a lot easier to teach in person than in print. Fortunately, the attached charts, particularly the basic charts listing the key key words for the all of the cards in the deck, tell you just about everything you need to know. I’m going to take the time to explain all the details, however, so that there is no chance of confusion. We begin by breaking each key word into two parts: the suit sound (the first letter of the word) and the number stem (the rest of the word). The Suit Sound. Each key word begins with the first letter of the suit of the card or the the equivalent sound. Suit Sound

Example

Note

Diamonds

D

D (oor)

---

Spades

S

S (ee)

---

Clubs

C or K

C (ore), K (ey)

Always hard “c”

Hearts

H

H (en), Wh (en)

Always soft “h ”

In practice, as soon as you know the suit of the card, you can begin to recall the key word by simply saying the first letter of the suit suit as you would normally pronounce it. This is the same as the traditional mnemonic system for cards. The Number Stem. My innovation begins with the second part of the key word, which I will call the “number stem.” The number stem is derived from the word that represents the numerical value of the card (one, two, three, . . . ten) or the name name of a court card (jack, queen, and king). king).

To create the number stem, drop the first consonant, or group of consonants, of the card’s numerical value and say the rest rest of the word that represents the numerical value of the card. When the first letter of the number is a vowel, there is no need to drop a consonant; the word itself is the number stem. Examples: For the number ten, the “t” is dropped and the number stem is “- en” (rhymes with “hen”). “hen”). For King the “k” is dropped and the stem is “- ing” (rhymes with ping). For seven, the “s” is dropped and the value stem is “- even” (rhymes with “heaven”). When creating the number stem, don’t worry about spelling, it is the sound of the stem that matters. The number stem should sound, or rhyme with, the numerical value of the card or the sound of the name of a court card. That’s what makes this system easy to learn and hard to forget. For convenience, the following chart details how the basic number stems are created. created. It shows how the basic number is stripped off the first consonant, how the stem should sound phonetically, and the final number stem itself. The number stems are largely, largely, but not entirely, regular. Be sure to compare this chart with the actual list of key words to see what what words have an irregular number stem. Remember, it is the sound of the number stem that is important, not its actual spelling.


Strip First Consonant

Basic Sound

Number Stem

One

- one

- wan

- wan

Two

t - wo

t - oo

- oo

Three

thr – ee

thr – ee

- ee

Four

f – our

f – ore

- ore

Five

f – ive

f - ive

- ive

Six

s – ix

s - ick

- ick

Seven

s – even

s -even

- even

Eight

- eight

- ate

- ate

Nine

n –ine

n - ine

- ine

Ten

t – en

t - en

- en

Jack

j - ack

j -ack

- ack

Queen

q - ueen

q - ream

- ream

King

k - ing

k - ing

- ing

Creating the Key Word. Combining the suit sound with the number stem creates the key word. This sounds complex, but in practice is simple, as a few examples will demonstrate. Suit Sound

Number Stem

Key Word

Five of Diamonds

D

– “ive”

Dive

Four of Spades

S

– “ore”

Sore

Two of Clubs

C

– “oo”

Coo

Ten of Hearts

H

– “en”

Hen

Remember, we are concerned only with the sound of the word when creating the number stem, not the precise spelling of the number stem. Twist the pronunciation of the number stem to create a key word that rhymes with numerical value of the card. Suit Sound

Number Stem

Key Word

Ace of Diamonds

D

– “wan”

Dawn

Nine of Spades

S

– “ine”

Sign

For the nine of spades, you could even use “sine” and visualize a sine wave, but that may be a little abstract. For me, the image of of a stop sign is easer to work with. with.


Remember to drop the first group of consonants from the number word when when creating the value stem. In practice, this is really only an issue with the number three, whose value stem is “ee”. Suit Sound

Number Stem

Key Word

Three of Spades

S

– “ee”

See

Three of Clubs

C

– “ee”

Key

When the number word does not begin with a consonant, simply create the value stem using the number word itself. This occurs with only two sets of cards, the the aces (which are treated as “ones”) and the eights. Suit Sound

Number Stem

Key Word

Ace of Spades

S

- “wan”

Swan

Eight of Hearts

H

- “ate”

Hate

The five of clubs and spades are irregular, their number stem being “- ave” (not “- ive”). Suit Sound

Number Stem

Key Word

Five of Clubs

C

– “ave”

Cave

King of Diamonds

D

– “ave”

Dave

Jacks and kings are handled in essentially es sentially the same manner, but we use the name of the card ca rd (“jack” and “king”), not its numerical value, to create the number number stem. Again, we drop the first consonant to create the number stem. Suit Sound

Number Stem

Key Word

Jack of Spades

S

– “ack”

Sack

King of Diamonds

D

– “ing”

Ding

Queens are the exception to the general rule of number stem creation. In order to make meaningful key words, the value stem for the queens is “-ream” (which rhymes with queen). The queen of hearts is the the exception to the exception. Suit Sound

Number Stem

Key Word

Queen of Spades

S

– “ream”

S(c)ream

Queen of Diamonds

D

– “ream”

Dream

Queen of Clubs

C

– “ream”

Cream

Queen of Hearts

H

– “ream”

Harem (“Hareem”)


The Key Word Lists. To pull this all together, here are the complete key word lists for all of the cards, by suit. Irregular key words are italicized. I’ve included the image I use for each key word. See the discussions below for additional thoughts on creating images for the key words. Spades

AS

S + one

S + wan

Swan

A white swan

2S

S + two

S + oo

Soo

Chung Ling Soo

3S

S + three

S + ee

See

A huge eyeball

4S

S + four

S + ore

Sore

An oozing sore

5S

S + five

S + ave

Save

Goalkeeper making diving save

6S

S + six

S + ick

Sick

A disgusting pile of vomit

7S

S + seven

S + even

Seven

Star Trek’s “Seven of Nine”

8S

S + eight

S + ate

Sate

A huge “sated” belly

9S

S + nine

S + ine

Sign

A red stop sign

10S

S + ten

S + en

Send

A gigantic envelope

JS

S + jack

S + ack

Sack

A gigantic sack

QS

S + queen

S + ream

Scream

“The Scream” painting

KS

S + king

S + ing

Sing

Fat Lady Singing

Clubs

AC

K + one

K + wan

Kwan

Figure skater Michelle Kwan

2C

C + two

C + oo

Coo

Cooing doves

3C

K + three

K + ee

Key

Gigantic house key

4C

C + four

C + ore

Core

An rotten apple core

5C

C + five

C + ave

Cave

A cave man

6C

C + six

K + ick

Kick

Jackie Chan doing a flying karate kick

7C

C + seven

K + even

Kevin

Kevin Costner

8C

C + eight

K + ate

Kate

Kate Blanchet

9C

C + nine

K + ine

Kind

A large hand stroking a small kitten

10C

C + ten

K + en

Ken

A Ken doll (Barbie’s date)

JC

C + jack

C + ack

Crack

The earth splits open

QC

C + queen

C + ream

Cream

A huge bowl of whipping cream

KC

C + king

K + ing

King

A fat King (Henry VIII)


Diamonds

AD

D + one

D + wan

Dawn

Sunrise (or woman named Dawn)

2D

D + two

D + oo

Doo

Dog doo doo

3D

D + three

D + ee

Dee Dee

Derek Dingle (DD)

4D

D + four

D + ore

Door

Your bedroom door

5D

D + five

D + ive

Dive

A high dive

6D

D + six

D + ick

Dick

Dick Clark

7D

D + seven

D + even

Devon

British countryside

8D

D + eight

D + ate

Date

Two teenagers kissing

9D

D + nine

D + ine

Dine

A fancy table, ready for dining

10D

D + ten

D + en

Den

A lion’s den

JD

D + jack

D + ack

Dax (Deck)

Star Trek’s “Dax” (or a deck of cards)

QD

D + queen

D + ream

Dream

A fantastic dream

KD

D + king

D + ing

Ding

A large ding in your windshield

Hearts

AH

H + one

H + wan

Hawn/Hun

Goldie Hawn/Genghis Kahn

2H

H + two

H + oo

Hoo

Cindy Lou Hoo of Hooville

3H

H + three

H + ee

He

He-man (action figure)

4H

H + four

Wh + ore

Whore

“Woman of the Night”

5H

H + five

H + ive

Hive

A swarming bee Hive

6H

H + six

H + ick

Hick

A country Hick

7H

H + seven

H + even

Heaven

Your image of Heaven

8H

H + eight

H + ate

Hate

Robed KKK = Hate

9H

H + nine

H + ine

Hind

A large hind (deer) or hindside

10H

H + ten

H + en

Hen

A gigantic Hen

JH

H + jack

H + ack

Hack

Hacky Sack

QH

H + queen

H + ream

Harem

A sheik’s Harem

KH

H + king

H + ing

Hang

The Hanged Man (tarot card)


Notes on the Hobbs Playing Card Mnemonic System

The rhyming element of the key words is very important. Because each key word essentially sounds like the numerical value of the card it represents, it is very easy to run through all the key words for a given suit with extreme rapidity. You literally count from one to king, adding the suit sound to the beginning of each number stem. Thus, the diamonds, in order, are: “dawn, doo, dee, door, dive, dick, Devon, date, dine, den, Dax, dream, ding”. ding”. I can rattle off the key words for each suit in less than than five seconds. Moreover, the key words for each four-of-a-kind also rhyme. The fours, for example, are “core, whore, door, and sore”. The tens are “Ken, hen, den, and send”. So far I have just spoken about the key words in the abstract. As you create the key words, it is important to generate a clear image for each word in your mind. This image must be grand and outlandish, something that you will instantly recall when you say the key word. Moreover, it is extremely important to tailor the key words to images that are personal to you; don’t feel limited or restricted to the words or images I have suggested. In fact, in some cases, I have tweaked the key words to be slightly more general from the key word I personally use. For example, the key word for the ten of spades should be “sen” which has been modified to “send” with the suggested image of an envelope. I actually know someone whose last name name is “Senn”, however, and I use an image of that person for the key word. The more you can adapt the key words to personal images, the easier they are to remember. Finally, one advantage of this system is that having understood the basic concept, you can actually forget your key words and it doesn’t matter; just re-create them on the the fly. Normally, the key word you come up with will be one you have used before. If not, so what? Just use it in the context of whatever whatever effect you are doing. You will find that you will remember the new image at least until the completion of the routine.


Applications for the Hobbs Playing Ca rd Mnemonic System

This is not intended to be a comprehensive treatise on mnemonic systems and key words; there are many, many books on this subject subject if you are interested. I particularly recommend the Lorayne and Aronson, but these are by no means means the only relevant sources information on using key words for cards. That being said, here are a few, somewhat cursory, thoughts on applications for the card key word mnemonic system. one I designed my card key key system to Calling Out the Odd Cards. This is my favorite memory stunt, the one do, and the the one I have used repeatedly with success. success. The spectator shuffles and then deals ten to thirteen cards face down to one side side of the table. The spectator calls out the cards in the rest of the cards in the deck, one-by-one. As he does so, you silently recall each card’s key word and then mentally mentally destroy the image of the key word. When the spectator is done, you will will tell him, slowly and dramatically, what cards are in the pile he set aside at the beginning of the routine. This is accomplished by mentally going through the key words for each of the suits in order from ace to king. You will find that you will simply know which cards you “destroyed” in your mind. Call out the undestroyed cards. If you have never tried “memory work” before, this effect is a great place to start. It is also worth noting that within the key words that I have suggested, there are several natural pairs of words. This was accidental, but actually proves beneficial in this effect. Examples of some natural pairs: He-man and Ken (which I always visualize as two dolls); Dax and Seven of Nine (two Star Trek characters); Kevin Costner and Kate Blanchet (the only two actors). Other pairs will occur to you as you examine the key word lists. When both cards of a paired set appear, it becomes natural to link the the image of them being destroyed, which further facilitates the subsequent act of recall. Memorized Deck. Most systems for memorizing a pre-set order of of fifty-two cards require that you mnemonically link the key word for each card with the key word for the card’s numerical position in the deck. Combining my system for card key words with the traditional system for creating key words for the numbers one through fifty-two is a potent combination. It gives you a unique and quick way to create images for the cards; these images are then linked to the numerical key words. By using two different systems for creating the key words, one for the cards and one for the numbers, the possibility of confusion is greatly reduced.

If you really want to try a different approach, combine my card key words with an idea of John Lovick’s, described in his Skinny Lecture Notes, for creating key words for the numbers one through fifty-two. Briefly, John jettisons the traditional approach to creating key words for numbers and simply creates a key word based on associations with the numbers that are meaningful to him. For example, you might always associate the number three with “trinity” and the number six with your cousin Bernie who has six brothers. After devising this system, I was in the process of learning Martin Joyal’s “Six-Hour Memorized Deck.” Joyal’s system replaces key words with simple formulas f ormulas for determining the position p osition of each card. Very quickly, however, the formulas are forgotten and you simply remember the position of the the cards. Using this approach, I mastered the number number cards in a day or two. I sometimes had trouble with the court cards, however, which have a rather different different set of rules. The simple solution was to use my key key words for the court cards, linking them to images associated with their numerical positions. I created the numerical key words using Lovick’s “create your own key word” idea.


Memorizing a Randomly Rando mly Shuffled Shuf fled Deck. This is a very old idea. A spectator shuffles the deck and then calls out the cards one at a time. As he does so, you mentally create a story that links each key word to the next in an ongoing ongoing chain. By reciting the story back to yourself, each image is recalled to mind and you repeat the cards in order. For example, the 2H, 5D, 7H, 6S might become: “The Hoo’s of Hooville dove to Heaven and become sick …”

I had no luck at all doing this using the the traditional mnemonic approach. Using my system, I can memorize half the the deck with practice. Beyond that is just hard… One suggestion: when attempting to memorize the order of a shuffled deck, I find it helpful to break the story chain into groups of twelve twelve or thirteen cards. Look for a point where the story story you are generating in your mind naturally comes to an end, or where a card simply doesn’t fit the story, and start a new sequence of key words. Breaking the deck into several several story chunks seems to make the process more manageable. Pay special attention, however, to remembering the first card of each chain, or you will end up in trouble. Practicing this stunt (and that’s what it is) is interesting because you simply can’t do it too many times in a row; all the images become blurred together in your head. For best results, practice remembering a shuffled deck, or a bunch of cards, once a day, every day. A Numerical Numeric al Peg System. Sy stem. I’m sure someone else has thought of this this before, but it worth noting that once you have a key word for each of the playing cards, you have key words for the numbers one through fifty-two. You can’t use this for memorizing memorizing a deck of cards, but these peg words can be used as a device to remember a long list of objects called out by the audience (each object is mnemonically linked to the peg word).

I keep this idea in reserve as an emergency back-up. I already have numerical key words for the numbers one through thirty, which I learnt long ago and use as needed. If for some reason I want the audience call out more than thirty objects, I start using the key words for the first ten club cards to take me to forty objects. I’ve never had to go higher, but if challenged to do so I would start using the rest of the the suits to memorize an additional thirty objects. Leave out the court cards, using only the ace through ten, to make the numerical position calculation that much easier.


Bibliographic Notes

The history of mnemonic systems stretches back thousands of years. In the past, such systems were of far greater importance than they are today. For this reason, it is unlikely that anything that is has been invented today is truly original. I certainly don’t make that claim for the system just described; it is simply the tool that I developed to accomplish a specific goal, one I hope that others can use as well. For anyone interested in the history of mnemonics, I highly recommend Francis Yates, The Art of Memory, (University of Chicago Press, 1966). This rather academic volume certainly doesn’t qualify as light reading. It is filled, however, with interesting historical information and speculation. For example, there there is an extensive analysis of the possibility that Shakespeare’s Globe theatre was intended to be a giant mnemonic device. This sort of place-oriented mnemonic system, which was devised by the ancient Greeks and involved associating the objects to be memorized with specific positions in a house or temple, is – I can attest from experience – completely practical. For an excellent contemporary description of the traditional mnemonic approach to memorizing a stacked deck, consider Aronson, A Stack (1979); reprinted in Aronson, Bound to Please (1994). Stac k to Remember Reme mber (1979); This provides a very detailed description of how key words for cards are usually created and a superb primer on using them to memorize memorize a stacked deck. As a bonus, Aronson’s memorized deck stack is simply brilliant. I think you will see how combining my key words words with the Aronson’s numerical key words would enable you to more quickly learn the Aronson stack. Aronson mentions that his system for memorizing a deck of cards is not original and that its principles are the same as those underlying previously published memory systems, including Roth, Zuffal, Nikola, H. Adrian Smith, Furst, Lorayne, and others. others. The bibliography at the end of A Stack contains Stac k to Remember Rem ember contains references to these sources. Another essential resource for understanding how to use key words is Lorayne & Lucas, T he Memory Book (Ballantine, 1974). Of particular interest is the entire chapter on on playing cards. This outlines the traditional approach to creating key words for cards. It then goes on to describe many applications, including the mutilation idea described above. This is where I first came across this stunt, stunt, and Lorayne and Lucas’s discussion of this trick, and it’s application to card games, is well worth reading. Aronson, references Lorayne’s book How to Develop a Super Power Memory (Fell, 1947), and it may be that the ideas in The Memory Book had already been discussed by Lorayne thirty years earlier. Zuffal, also mentioned by Aronson, published a six-pamphlet series on memory work. Memory Trix No. 2 (1940) is entitled “Memorizing a Deck of of Playing Cards.” Zuffal’s system is the reverse of the traditional system: the first part of the key word is related to the value of the card (in the same manner as the traditional system) and the last part of the word keys the suit of the card. Zuffal states that he abandoned the traditional system because it contains too many exceptions; but his approach also contains a fair number of exceptions to the basic rules that he sets forth. The Nikola system established the classic pattern for the traditional key words for both cards and numbers. The Nikola stack was originally published as a separate manuscript, The Nikola Card System (1927). It can be found in Hugard & Gravatt, Encyclopedia of Card Tricks (1937) (Dover reprint, 1974). I haven’t read Roth, Smith, or Furst, so cannot comment on their systems.


Martin Joyal’s The Six Hour Memorized Deck (1997) presents a radically different approach to memorizing a stacked deck. By its very nature, it is not concerned with key key words for cards. However, it contains a chapter, “An Overview of Card Systems,” that discusses many of the previous approaches to memorizing a deck of cards. It was in reading this chapter in draft form that I became aware of an approach to key words similar to mine: Stanley Collins’ “The Esscee Esscee Prearranged Pack.” This was originally originally published in Collins’ book A Conjuring Melange (1947). Collins’ system is the reverse of mine; the first consonant of the the key word is intended to remind you of the value of the card, the last letter corresponds with the suit of the card. Strangely, I had considered Collins’ approach in my original attempts to devise a fast and furious key word system. On the surface it appeared to make sense because the value preceded the suit, which is how we normally say the the name of the card (the (the “ace of diamonds”). I abandoned this approach for two reasons: (1) As a practical matter, there were too many exceptions to the basic rules that I was was trying to devise. (2) It was impossible to make the value stems consistent across suits or, to put it another way, to make all the cards of of the same value rhyme. This was an important consideration for me, as it is what makes the system so quick and easy to use. By structuring the key words the way I have, I feel that there are only three (minimal) exceptions to the system (the five of clubs, the five of spades, and the queen of hearts); otherwise, the sound of all the words for a given value rhyme.


hobbs play card mnemonic system

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