Converting Poker Cards Into Images

Memorizing decks of poker cards in order and recalling them is one of the most fun, interesting and intriguing events of a memory championship. The official world record for memorizing an entire deck of cards is under 13 seconds!! Isn’t that CRAZY? 😀

There are a lot of ways to create a system for memorizing cards but these are the two most simple and common ways to do it!

Create fixed images for each of the 52 cards

Or

Convert each card into your major system!  

To create a specific system for cards, divide them into four groups and assign a category to each suit.

♠ Spades – Celebrities

♥ Hearts  – Family

♣ Clubs – Fruits

♦ Diamonds – Vehicles 

Each suit has 13 cards. Images for cards from 2 – 9 can be made using the phonetic codes to make it easier.  And the images for the remaining 4 cards ( Ace, Jack, Queen and King ) can be made using the first letters or simply just some connection to them. To give you an idea, I’m sharing the images for spades. Your images and categories for each suit can be customized!

♠A – Angelina Jolie

♠2 – Natalie Portman

♠3 – Meryl Streep

♠4 – Ryan Gosling

♠5 – Leonardo DiCaprio

♠6 – Shahrukh Khan

♠7 – Cameron Diaz

♠8 – Vin Diesel

♠9 – Paul Walker

♠J – Jessica Alba

♠Q – Queen Elizabeth

♠K – Kate Winslet

If you want to avoid having different systems and prefer using a single system for all the events, here’s how to convert each card into your major system!

• Start by assigning a number to each suit – ♠ Spades = 1, ♥ Hearts = 2, ♣ clubs = 3, ♦ Diamonds  = 4
• Assign an image for J,Q and K Cards using categories. Ace of any suit can be translated into 1.

Examples :

Spades : A♠ = 11 = Dad, 4♠ = 41 = Rat, 8♠ = 81 = Fat, K♠  = Kate Winslet.

Hearts : A♥ = 12 = Don, 4♥ = 42 = Rain, 8♥ = 82 = Fan, K♥  = Favorite Family Member.

Clubs : A♣ = 13 = Dam, 4♣ = 43 = Ram, 8♣ = 83 = Foam, K♣  = Mango (King of Fruits).

Diamonds : A♦ = 14 = Door, 4♦ = 44 = Roar, 8♦ = 84 = Fur, K♦ = Chariot.

Training tip : Learn the images for one suit, Shuffle them and try to recognize the image of each card. Repeat the process for each suit separately before mixing two suits together. Then try Shuffling black suits and red suits separately and practice before moving on to shuffling the entire deck.

Happy Neurons!!