Page 78 - How to Develop A SUPER-POWER MEMORY

82 Playing Cards
" 'But, son,' the old guy says, 'do not bet him, for as
sure as you do you are going to get an ear full of cider.' "
The memory stunts you will do with cards after studying
these methods will seem almost as amazing to your friends.
Aside from that, they are also wonderful memory exercises.
I suggest that you read and learn the contents of this chap-
ter whether or not you indulge in card playing.
Cards, of course, are difficult to picture, just as numbers
were before you started reading this book. In order for you
to be able to remember them, I'll show you how to make
them mean something; something that you can picture in
your mind. Some years ago I read an article in a popular
magazine about a professor who was trying some sort of
experiment. He was attempting to teach people how to
memorize the order of a shuffled deck of cards. The article
mentioned the fact that he had accomplished his goal.
After six months of training, his students were able to look
at a mixed deck for twenty minutes or more, and then call
off the cards. I don't know the exact system that was used,
but I do know that it had something to do with seeing the
cards actually laid out in order, in the mind. I have nothing
against this; it's just that it shouldn't take you more than
a day or two at the most to learn my system. When you
have mastered it, it won't take twenty minutes to memo-
rize a shuffled deck of cards. It might take about ten min-
utes at first, and with time and practice, you'll cut it down
to five minutes!
There are actually two things that you must know in
order to remember cards. First, is a list of at least fifty-two
peg words for the numbers 1 to 52; these you already know.
You also have to know a peg word for every card in a deck
of cards. These card peg words are not chosen at random.
As with the number pegs, they are selected because they