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by Doc Az This essay was copied from the archives of the twoplustwo.com forums. The essay was addressed to a poster that asked for help in memorizing cards in 7 stud. Doc Az responded promising three posts. I've only found two posts and I've repeated them here...
My Good Stud friends, Doc. Keith I am going to go
over you question in detail, but to try and help other forum members I am going
to review the entire topic. It should take 3 posts. don't forget to read posts 2
and 3.
Dear Keith, You raise a couple of
critical questions. I’m going to take this opportunity to review some basic
concepts on card memory, as well as discussing progressive memory loss that
occurs in EVERY human as he matures. Topic number one: How
to enhance your ability to remember your opponents exposed cards by rank, in the
sequence that they were dealt. Example number one Charlie’s opponents
door cards as they were dealt by rank are 3,6,2,Ace,Queen,and 7. Answer: As Charlie’s
mentally reads to him self the ranks of the exposed cards the neurons (located
in Charlie’s memory center) lay down a very thin peptide chain (collection of
amino acids) This chain is the start of memory. Each time Charlie reviews the
ranks of the cards that peptide chain gets thicker and his memory of this
sequence becomes more permanent. 2. Why is it easier for
Charlie to remember ABCDEFG than it is 3,6,2,Ace, Queen, 7 Answer: Because Charlie
has laid down the ABCD sequence so many thousands of times, that it’s peptide
chain is so thick, that it has become a permanent part of Charlie’s
consciousness. 3 What can Charlie do
to temporarily improve his ability to remember his opponents door cards? Answer; If Charlie
breaks his opponent’s door cards into two groups of three, and then silently
repeats them to himself, in the sequences that they came out 4 times. He can
prolong the length of time that he remembers that particular rank sequence. Example: Silently say
6,3,2 Ace mentally 4 times to your self. 632Ace, 632Ace 632 ace,
632 Ace. Now ask your self “what door card rank did the player located between
the player with a 6 and the player with a 2 in the door have? Answer 3 of
course. By breaking the card
rank’s into the sequences that you want to remember into groups of 3 or 4 and
then silently repeating them 4 times, you have made the peptide chain of that
sequence in your brain thicker. It may be only thick
enough to remember them for 3 minutes, but that is all the time that you need. 4 What is a memory
technique that you can use to remember the sequence of cards as they were dealt
on fourth fifth and sixth street? Answer: In your mind
mentally verbalize an imaginary occurrence. Try this experiment, as
a hand is being played mentally pretend that you are an ESPN announcer calling a
stud hand play by play, to a national audience, for the world championship at
the WSOP (world series of poker) Research has shown that
the more vividly you make the imaginary experience the easier it is to remember.
First change the names
of the players to the rank of their door cards. For example Joe, Marry, and Sam
will now have different names. Joe’s name is now 6,
Mary now is 3, Sam’s name will now have been changed to 2. So your mental
commentary might sound something like this; “Door 6 catches a
dangerous suited connector 7! Poor 3 caught a partially dead Ace, the bring in
player 2 just paired his door card!” “Watch out folks,
Suited connectors and paired door cards can be dangerous. 2’s paired door card
may not be as dangerous because 2 was the forced bring in.” “ Hitting Aces are
always a risk but it may not be as much in 3’s case since there already was
one Ace out when players Ace, Queen, and 7 folded.” (Note to my friends, if
this technique is starting to sound a lot like the way that I dictate my hand
analysis's, its because, this IS the technique I use. And once you have done it
100,000 times it becomes automatic) 5. When you have free
time mentally play imaginary hands out card by card. Mentally play each possible
strategy and counter strategy. In your mind ACTUALLY SEE THE CARDS as they are
dealt. Repeat the hand over and over again, so that when you encounter it at the
Casino your moves become almost automatic. Ok so we have reviewed
several techniques that you can use to keep track of the exposed stud cards. Now
lets talk about memory enhancement in normal humans. There are 3 major
techniques and 4 minor techniques that we can use to enhance both or short term
and long term memories. No 1. Aerobic exercise.
This has a major impact on memory. Chess playing became an obsession in the
Soviet Union, and since Chess brought the USSR quite a bit of international
prestige they had their scientist go to some lengths to find ways to enhance
both memory and strategic analysis. They divided their
beginner Chess players into two groups and started one group on MILD aerobic
exercise. I.e. Walking or slow
swimming, and what they found was that there was a profound increase by the
exercises in both memory and strategic logic (This is especially
true for the first 4 hours after you exercise.) Try this experiment do a mild
hour of aerobic exercise and then go directly to your poker room and see how you
feel. Answer: You will feel
strong, sharp, and alert. Usualy for the first 3 or 4 hours. When NASA started
having our pilots do aerobic exercises they documented the same findings. This is the end of post
number one. But we still have some very exciting materials to cover. That I will
cover in posts numbers 2 and 3. And I’ll bet that
before we are done, we will have taken your card memory capabilities to levels
that you have never reached before. That is if I can just
remember those other 7 techniques that are! One final important
step!!! Since card memory is so
critical to playing advanced stud well. I would like you to take your copy of
Seven-Card Stud for Advanced Players, and go to the blank pages in front of the
table of contents. Or you can use the page in the back after the index. Now write abbreviated
summaries of the topics that we have covered. 1. Rank sequence memory
technique: break ranks cards into groups of 3 or 4 and then mentally repeat each
group, in the sequence that they were dealt 4 times each. (You may need to
repeat this during the hand) 2 During a hand
mentally change your opponents names to the rank of their door cards. I.e.
Change Joe’s name to 6, Mary becomes 3, Tom becomes 2. 3.As each following
street’s exposed cards are dealt, mentally imagine yourself as a commentator
announcing the hand. I.e. “ Look 6 just caught a dangerous suited connector 7!
4 Mentally vividly
conceptualize imaginary hands and mentally play them over and over again card by
card. Using every possible strategies and counter strategies. 5 Work up to doing an
hour’s worth of aerobic exercises a day. Try exercising and then going
directly to the card room. You should be much sharper for 4 hours. Thank you for raising
this topic which I feel is vital to playing stud well. Most Sincerely, Dear Keith, In the first post we
discussed the physiology of card memory. This time we will discuss techniques to
augment your memory. 1 Monitor your card
memory and your mental alertness. Being mentally alert means money when you are
playing poker. In your poker diary BEFORE you go to the casino write down your
mathematical alertness quotient. But how do you monitor
your alertness. Answer: Get a watch that measures in seconds. Now measure the
number of seconds that it takes you to count down from a hundred by threes.
100-97- 94-91-89 etc. You will find that that
will typically takes you certain number of seconds that we will call X. By observing your poker
diary you will also eventually discover that on days that you are particularly
alert i.e. On days that your mental alertness quotient is lower than usual
because your count down is faster i.e.. X minus 3 or 4 seconds, that your
average winnings for those nights will tend to be higher than usual. You also will learn
that on days that you are not as sharp (from chronic fatigue, “a bug coming
on” Anxiety or what ever) your X times will increase. For example your
Quotient might be (X plus 5 or 6.) On those days you may
find the best thing to do is to grab a nap before you go to the casino. Or the best money maker
technique may be not to risk money on days during which you are more likely to
loose money. So you might “do best “ by going to a movie or working in your
yard. Poker is one of the few
jobs where when you are a “little sleepy” that day it may mean that rather
than going home from a typical job with a guaranteed $200 dollars for the day. You may end up paying
your table $ 200 dollars when you are not sharp. So be prepared to cut your
losses. If you want an even
more definitive X number you can measure the time that it takes you to count
down from 100 by threes and then to count back up by sevens. This more exact
technique will give you an XY quotient. This technique can be
really being helpful as a method to rule out the “pseudo alertness
syndrome.” In this condition you
may have played so long that your body puts out burst of adrenalin and you
“feel pseudo great” or even “super pseudo alert” but you really are on
an adrenaline rush” If you do a X or an X Y
quotient test during stages that you are playing unusually long sessions, you
may find that even though you think you feel great, your alertness quotient
might be an X plus 10. (Danger !) This phenomenon
explains how we can sometimes join a table where a good player (who might have
played all night) is four racks up and then drops three racks in an hour. His
alertness and reason simply have worn out. There have been situations where I
have seen friends getting caught in this trap an I have called them aside and
said :“Hey buddy, you are
an excellent player, but you are exhausted. As a friend I would recommend that
you take the winnings that you have left and go home. Get some rest and come
back tomorrow. And incidentally tomorrow when you are sharper, I am going to do
my very best to kick your A--. So sleep tight, the game will always be here. 2. Sit in seat
positions number one. “ The 5 second advantage” 80% of all-important
Stud decisions are made on Third Street. If you are sitting in seat number one
you have 5 extra seconds to memorize your cards. And 5 extra seconds is a LOT of
time. Example: Since you are
in seat number one, you get to MEMORIZE your hole cards before any one else even
gets their second down card. Let’s say that you
look at your hole cards, and you have the King of hearts and the Queen of
hearts. So the first thing that
you do is to repeat to your self, King of hearts Queen of hearts four times,
(that’s how you memorize them) Mean while every one
else is getting their second hole card. Now even before the
door cards come out ,you know exactly which 29 cards you want to keep track of.
(11 flush hearts)(6 Kings and Queens)(12 straight cards Aces, Jacks, and tens)
And that is a big advantage in your being able to strategically analyzing the
three dimensional potentials of your hand. 3. Memorize your hole
cards. By repeating your hole cards 4 times when you first look at them, you
don’t have to look back at your hole cards as the hand is played out, giving
away tells. Also since you really know your hole cards, your mind is free to
focus on the more important task of analyzing the changing dimensions of the
hands in play. 4. If you can’t see
your opponent’s cards because your vision is weak, then you should improve
your visual acuity. Example: If you are in
position seven and as the door cards come out they are King, but to you the next
card is probably an 8, but you can’t see well enough to be certain that it’s
not a 9 or a 7, during the time that you should be spending memorizing your
opponents door cards you are wasting part of your time just trying to figure out
what they are. And then during the rest of the hand you can’t be really sharp
because you are spending half of your time just trying to read the cards. Methods to improve your
visually acuity. 5. Take a short break
from the game every hour to stay mentally sharp. Even in medical school
the professors made us take 5-10 minutes an hour during their lectures to keep
sharp. So every hour get up
from the table for go for a short walk (the exercise will really refresh you)
gets a cup of coffee or a soda. By doing this one trick
you probably will find that you can stay sharp for 2 or 3 more hours a session
than you usually would. 6 Don’t eat food or
drink drinks that mentally slow you down. Fatty foods tend to
make you groggy. Either just drink a glass of juice or a soft drink an hour, or
eat a couple of small non-fat meals. When you eat a big
fatty meal at the table there is a huge fluid shift from your body and brain, to
your digestive system. That why you can get the “after thanks-giving dinner
syndrome” after eating a fatty meal. Where all that you want to do is to lay
on the floor and let your belt out and put your feet up. Drink NO ALCOHOL until
you leave the table. Some players feel that alcohol helps them, because for a
short while it removes their inhibitions and tends to let them play looser and
more aggressive. But there have been a
hundred studies (usually related to driving and job performance) that document,
that in the long run alcohol is going to impair your alertness. Ok 6 new topic is
plenty for now. The next post should allow us to finish our review of the
science of card memory. At that time we will discuss the memory changes of
maturing players. As I said before, I
feel that if you aren’t using your mind to strategically analyze the impact of
the cards that are exposed in stud, you simply can’t play advanced stud well.
(PERIOD). And I suggested that
you write abbreviated examples of the points, that we have discussed, in one of
your copies of Seven-Card Stud for Advanced Players. After summarizing
today’s points I will add the synopsis of the points that we reviewed in Card
Memory Post No 1. 6. Monitor your mental
alertness quotient. Example: count down from 100 by threes or down by threes and
then up by sevens. 1. Rank sequence memory
technique: break ranks cards into groups of 3 or 4 and then mentally repeat each
group, in the sequence that they were dealt 4 times each. (You may need to
repeat this during the hand) Thank you for raising
this topic which I feel is vital to playing advanced stud well. Most Sincerely,
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