I have found that there are times when performing that I draw a blank, and momentarily forget which card is at which number! I think this happens when I am stressed or very nervous during a performance. I have decided to start keeping a "cheat sheet" with me to peek at if this happens again.

Anybody else do this? This would proabably work really well for somebody still working on a memorized deck.

I don't think you should need it after the deck has been really really committed to memory. In my case that took a lot longer than actually learning it. You also need to get comfortable with using the card to stack number thinking in different ways and knowing them in different orders such as all the cards in order by suit.

People are different but I don't think there are anyone on this planet more nervous than me. There are many page long threads on this site devoted solely to my famously shaking hands and blank empty stare. And I find that if anything goes wrong, it will be with the math or sleights and not with the card/stack number relationship.

Here is what I suggest. Try using the deck as a cheat sheet. Peek top or bottom cards. Glimpse the card above or below your card if you are in a situation where you can and see if that puts the selected card in context.

If they merely mention a card and you have to cut to it and you draw a complete blank, you could perhaps make up an excuse why you wouldn't recommend that particular one. If they say the name of one of the Aces or court cards, you could for instance ask them to pick something more anonymous. Maybe there are good excuses for other cards as well, such as them having been used before or something.

Another thing you could do is to actually mark the cards for a while. Maybe that isn't practical for a full deck but if there are a few you always have problems with you could perhaps give them something to jog your memory.

And drill them more of course. That is the best solution probably. Again and again and again even though you fell that you know them perfectly when you aren't nervous.

If you're using the Peg System of Memory it is really difficult to draw a blank. You can actually figure out either the card or the number by converting it to a word.

Nothing wrong with having a cheat sheet handy. It may instill confidence, and may not have to be used at all.

On my website, in the article on Aronson Stack Mastery, I explain how the assorted different memory banks you are creating does give you a back up.

To read about it, just go to my website ( http://www.loomismagic.com ) and click through to the mem-deck area and then scroll down to the articles index and click on article 14.

Dennis Loomis

Somewhere I have a playing card with the Aronson Stack on it. I don't recall where I got it; maybe with Try the Impossible.

Me too! I bought the book used and the card was in there. I assume it was part of the package.

I was going to say that I didn't get any card in my copy and that I felt cheated and left out. But then I decided to take a second look just to be sure and there it was!

I thought I had actually read through that book but I guess I never did after all. Apparently I didn't even get to the middle, which is where the card was. And now I'm waiting for another Aronson book to arrive in the post. Oh well.

I want to second Noobini's original post about just learning through practice and experience.

I also got one of those printed stack order cards in my Aronson book, but used it only as a book mark.

My concern with a cheat sheet is that it gives you a false sense of security. It is nice to have on you, but when can you look at it during a routine?

If you put it in the deck, you have to palm it out somehow. Then you have to be able to look at it while the heat is on.

If you put it in the cellophane of your card box, you have to fiddle with the card box during the routine and still have the problem of looking at it when the heat is on.

If you put it in your pocket, you have the same problems as listed with it in the deck.

Of course if you perform seated you could put it under a leg and adjust when the problem arose, but you still have to look down at the card.

A cheat sheet is a good idea, but I don't see how you can logistically look at it durning a close up routine. After all, if you truely don't have any idea where the card is, you have to look through your whole cheat sheet in order to find it. I believe that would take much more time than just bagging the routine and turning into a card to wallet or some other out. However, if you know that the card is in, say, the 40's then you should be able to pretty easily be able to come up with it from your memory based entirely on cyclical memorization.

One idea, if you are going to use a cheat sheet, comes to mind. (I believe I learned this from Max Maven, but do not know an original or proper source) You could tape the cheat sheet to a sharpie or across the top of a note pad. Then as you wrote down a prediction, it would give you the time and cover needed to look quickly at the cheat sheet.

Good luck, and keep working on the stack. It will pay off.

Paul

The suggested cheatsheet (which you can easily adapt to any stack you wish) will be with the deck without any suspicion being drawn to it - unless you make it too obvious that you need it, you just need a presentational ploy to ring it in.
So you will need to create an alternative fork in each routine to bring in the cheatsheet - please aim to keep the use of this to a minimum.
The more you force yourself to properly use the stack (not relying on a cheatsheet) the better you will learn it and it will become second nature.

If by "cheat sheet" you mean a second way to get to the next card in the stack, I do that by having memorized Osterlinds BCS stack. That way, if (when!!) my memory fails, I can always find the next card by doing the math. Having the next card will usually jog my memory as to the position.

Bill

@Billgussen: the cheatsheet can be used for a little more than just obtaining the next card - one could revert to Si Stebbins if the next card is all that one needs and one can't remember what 4 pairs of monarchs did. The principles behind the mentioned cheatsheet are discussed in Mnemonica and Try the Impossible and comparable to a marketed item quite popular a few years ago.

It was Try the Impossible;
also one is included in New World by Dean Dill and Michael Weber, though my 2nd hand version didn't have this valuable crib :o(

Larry