I am still working on memorizing cards in seemingly random order. I am still not very good at it, so don’t expect me on Australia’s Got Talent any. time. soon! However, I found something new that isn’t nearly as difficult. Not as versatile perhaps, but not as taxing on the old noggin. It’s a stack in which any card’s position can be calculated. But unlike some card stacks (I am looking at you Si Stebbins) this one still appears random to your spectator. It’s actually quite clever!
Here, let me give you the first 10 cards: 10C, 7H, 4S, AD, JD, 6C, 7C, 9S, 6D, AC. Besides there being four clubs in the first ten cards (that’s a bit suspish) it starts with 10-7-4-A which is “three apart” . It doesn’t help that those cards are in CHaSeD order (Clubs, Hearts, Spades, Diamond). Luckily, the pattern stops right there. There are a couple of very obvious signs of the cards being stacked but more about this later…
HARDING
This way of ordering cards is called the Bart Harding Stack. It is said to have originated somewhere, sometime around 1962 but, that is about as far as I have gotten with my research. Most online resources simply regurgitate the same pamphlet that explains the stack and that’s it. You can find a copy HERE. Because that 2-pager does a fine job explaining what is going on, I can be brief. Basically you “memorize” a virtual deck in near-new order. Clubs, hearts spades and diamonds from ace through to king. Each king thus sits in a position that is a multiple of 13. Each card is easy to find knowing where the kings are. You simply add or subtract the number to get you to the closest king. . If you need to know where the 10 of hearts is you simply have to remember that the king of hearts is in position 26. The 10 is three down from the king, so 23. Likewise the 6 of spades is six up from the king of hearts so 32.
To find that card (6 of spades) in the deck that is actually in your hands (you know, the stacked deck) you reverse the position in the virtual (imaginary) deck to get 23. With a few exceptions each card can be found that way. The 3 of diamonds is in position 42 in your “sorted” deck and so 24 in your stack.
Sometimes of course, if you reverse a number you get something that is larger than 52. In that case you subtract 5 from the first digit and add 5 to the second digit. 18 becomes 81. 8 minus 5 equals 3 and 1 plus 5 equals 6. The 6 of hearts is in position 36 in your stack.
If the number in your virtual deck is below 10 (single digit in other words), just add a zero. The 2 of clubs is in position 20.
Exceptions?
These are the only rules you have to remember. Psych! Here are the exceptions to the rule. The six and seven of clubs are in position 6 and 7 in the stack just like in your ordered (virtual) deck. This is because you can’t reverse those numbers into a number lower than 52. Not without clashing with another card that should be in the same position. 6 (for the 6 of clubs) becomes 06, in reverse that would be 60. That is above 52 so you sub 5 from the first digit to get 1 and add 5 to the second digit to get 5. the 15th position however is for the QD because 51 reversed is also 15. the 7C would clash with the KD.
The ace of spades stays in position because 27 in reverse is 72 and 7 minus 5 equals 2 while 2 PLUS 5 equals 7 to get right back to 27.
Also, the 3 of hearts (16).
And the 5 of diamond (44), and all the other numbers that are doubles (11, 22, 33).
There are a few drawbacks…
The ace and jack of the same suit are always next to each other. So too are the two and queen of the same suit. People familiar with stacked decks might recognise this. Unlike the Aronson stack there are no built-in poker hands, that’s a bit of a bummer. To be fair though, if you are better at adding and subtracting numbers in your head than you are at memorising seemingly random sequences, this may well be for you. I suck at both so… Woe is me!
PS: As far as I know there is no easy way to organise cards into this stack.Boo!