Memorizing the cards dealt in the game

Question

So I've recently found this game 'Gin Rummy' on Playstore and it keeps me interesting. Its similiar to Rummy and its got this feature called 'knocking' and that is quite a different take from the usual game. I try to play almost every day on it. One aspect of it is it helps my mind alert.

In the game my method of trying to memorize the cards that are being dealt on the table is to club the cards together in my mind.

For example If a Jack of diamonds is dealt on the table, in my mind I say aloud J. Then if a 7 of spades come I append that to the J in my mind so it becomes J7 Then if a 2 of clubs come the list in my mind becomes J72. Since that seems complicated to me I say Jay Seventy Two (J72) ok, so after 10-15 cards come on the table the list in my mind becomes something like this

Example:

J72 Q96 564 KK2 798

since in my mind I cannot write down the list like the above I say it like this

Jay seventy two - Q ninety six - Five sixty four - Ksquare 2 - Seven Ninety eight

Ok. Uptill here it is okay with me. But when the list goes on and more than 20 cards have been dealt in the game I am not able to memorize the cards which have been dealt in the current game.

So, I was wondering - I am not the first person to whom this problem has happened, there would be loads of people who have had this problem. And that is why I was wondering if any of you guys have had this problem. And what strategy do you use to memorize the cards that come along in the game?

Answer 1

I am not familiar with gin rummy but one method used by memory experts to remember a whole deck of 52 cards is to create yourself a memory palace with at least 18 rooms. You have to do this once and reuse the same palace forever. Additionally, for every card in the deck you have to learn a person, an object and an action. This is your setup. When the cards are then dealt you start filling your palace. Say the king of spades is George Washington, chopping and a hat. The 3 of clubs is Britney spears, singing and a broomstick And the 8 of diamonds is your mother, cleaning and a candle.

Let's assume the first room in your palace is the guests toilet.

Let's assume the sequence starts with K♠️ 3♣️ 8♦️ You would then memorize George Washington singing with a candle in your guest toilet.

And so on. The initial effort is pretty high though: you have to learn 52*3 references to cards and build your palace

Answer 2

Aldinjo's answer is the best practice if you can find in you the mental power to build that great palace. If for some reason you don't feel you can build the palace, here is an easy walkaround: write.

In order to be expert at Rummy-Gin, you need to memorize more than just the cards that been dealt, each card is in one of the following states:

1. unseen (either deck or opponent)
2. my hand - seen/unseen by opponent
3. opponent's hand
4. discard by me/opponent/first card

Chapter 5 at the book How to win at Gin-Rummy:Playing for fun and Profit, is dedicated to figuring the opponent hand. The author use 3 matrices: your hand, opponent hand and opponent likely hand.

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• Make those notes only at games that do not consider writing as cheating.