What do you do to keep your memorized deck stack fresh in your memory? When I have some time to kill I do some of the following exercises which are done without a deck of cards in hand.
I go through the aces in CHSD order reciting the corresponding number in my head followed by the twos, threes, etc.
I go through the deck in order from the first through 52nd card (or backwards) reciting the cards at each number to myself.
I go through AC to KC, then AH to KH, AS to KS, and AD to KD reciting the corresponding number.
Anybody else do anything similar?

Frequently when I see numbers, like numbers on highway signs or phone numbers, I think of those numbers as positions in the deck and I recall the cards at those positions. For example, if I see the phone number 301-936-1212, I'll recall the cards at positions 3, 30, 1, 19, 9, 3, 36, 12, and 21.

I also perform a memorized deck effect a lot so performing keeps me in practice.

Larry D.

Wherever I am I look at the numbers that are omnipresent in our society - license plates on the cars in front of me, phone numbers and addresses on signs, prices, etc. I then recall the identity of the card that falls at the position of all the numbers I see.

And I then mix up all the numbers within any given sign to make up new numbers. If the license plate in front of me - for example - has a 53 in it, I just put the 5 and the 3 with any other numbers (front and back) also in the plate to make up new numbers that fall within the range of 1 - 52.

I find that by this method, I am forced to use the randomness inherent in the numbers I come across so that I won't inadvertently always come up with similar set of numbers/cards that my mind might come up with on its own due to any number/card "bias" that I might be unaware of.

I do similar thing already posted.

Also - odds & evens, and red only & black only.

Off the top of your head, how many red cards are in the 1st 10 cards in your stack. Black? Even #'s? etc..

One of the best things to practise in the work commute.

As the guys pointed out, linking the cards to the random numbers you encounter everyday is a good exercise. Scary, though, becuase after a while it happens automatically. Another wonderful tool for this is Nick Pudar's Stack View. Nick has done a fantastic job, which is available for us for free!

Also, choose one effect that goes from stack number to card value (for instance, "A Miracle With Cards", by Marlo, or Greg Arce's untitled version) and one effect that goes from card value to stack number (for instance, "Children's Yardsale", by Harry Anderson). If you do those on a regular basis, you shouldn't have any trouble.


federico

I took an old deck, and wrote the appropriate stack number in large dark digits on the back of each card.

Each time I want to exercise my knowledge of the stack, I riffle shuffle the deck several times, each time turning over half the pack (so the cards end up randomized not only for order, but also for face-up vs. face-down). Then I run through the deck as quickly as possible, naming the hidden size of each card.

I find that this is preferable to exercises that always require translations in the same direction (value to stack number or vice versa).

... Doug

I use it in performances.

Sometimes I do the odd numbers, then the evens. Go to Aronson's site and do the random test. Take a deck shuffle and test myself by looking at card and recalling its number.

I use the handheld version of Supermemo. It's very effective in helping you remember almost anything. It's best feature is that it quizzes you more often on information you don't remember as well.

I used to practice things like this during my morning and evening commutes: 40 miles each way.

However, since February I've begun my own consulting practice my commute has been reduced to walking downstairs in the morning and back upstairs in the evening. This cuts into my practice time considerably.

As in virtually everything else in life, there are tradeoffs here as well.

;)

Reassembling the stack in reverse order with every deck I have (I use this to check that I am not missing cards).

And lots of performance with it.

Practise tool:
http://www.stackview.com/