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I'm trying to determine which is the most likely suit order to be in mind of the spek. For me, it's Hearts Clubs Diamonds Spades. My BW deck implies it's Clubs Hearts Diamonds Spades for some.

I wonder if that's a UK thing, a bridge thing or some other thing.

Any thoughts appreciated.

smarvell wrote:I'm trying to determine which is the most likely suit order to be in mind of the spek. For me, it's Hearts Clubs Diamonds Spades. My BW deck implies it's Clubs Hearts Diamonds Spades for some.

I wonder if that's a UK thing, a bridge thing or some other thing.

Any thoughts appreciated.

That second one is CHaSeD order.

i find it goes Diamond Club Heart Spade. probably picked this up from playing hours of cribbage (sp?) or something.

Here's a snippet from a little article-ette from the up-coming NUMS BLOG...

"I find, personally, that if asked to 'think of card' a spectator seems to either choose mostly Hearts or Clubs. Oddly, though, I have done a small amount of research into laypersons and card suits, and the 'common' ordering which 11 out of 15 people I randomly asked is: Spades, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds.
But, it was odd to see how many people had to THINK HARD about the suits... try it on a few random people... we magish take familiarity of card suits for granted!
However... to further add froth to this coffee, the single most popular choice of card seems to be the Ace of Spades."

I'm not sure if that helps at all, but it seemed topical. The extract it's from is talking about how it's almost impossible to actually accurately predict a thought-of card... and how the odds can be changed, i.e.:

A speccy has a 1 in 52 chance of picking a SINGLE CARD
A speccy has a 1 in 2 chance of picking a SINGLE COLOUR
A speccy has a 1 in 4 chance of picking a SINGLE SUIT

etc... and how analysing our 'odds' against a prediction, we can narrow down and be more accurate with predictions if we 'guide' them.

Ho hum

well, there's lots to be said for verbally guiding people onto colours of suits, then some miming of physical actions to help too...

lots of fun to learn and apply...

there's stuff all over the place that you can learn from, Banachek, Kenton, Derren Brown to name but...........three.

David Blaine spends a paragraph or two on this in his book Mysterious Stranger including the differences between men and women for both suit and value.

A bridge player would say Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades, No Trumps.

Barry

a while ago a kept a tally of how many people chose what card over a 2 month period to try to work out some kind of probability.

Not very scentific I know but very interesting. Men would usually go for a club where as women tended for the hearts and more often then not, the ace. There didn't seem to be much pattern to the value of the men's cards. Also ace of spades was very low on the list of chosen cards despite supposedly being the one most likely to be chosen.

I once tried the survey thing myself, but then I just accepted that while culture often push people in a certain direction, it's no science at all.

Thanks to things like that Motorhead song, and the great emhasis often placed upon the Ace of Spades in gambling scenes in films that said card is more prominent in peoples' minds generally, so catch someone off guard and chances are that card will be given preference, or one of the other popular ones.

But really, a large amount of people are wise to the common-choices game, or someone may have been agonising over which particular diamond ring to buy his wife-to-be or whatever - all of which would influence someone's decision. So the best thing to do really is as others have said - try to influence them in a particular way, or force & reconstruct, or have an out - simple as really!

I've just done a little experiment... and I feel rather pleased with myself!

I asked my boss, who is actually THE most intelligent dude I know, to tell me the four suits of a deck of cards.

He said, without hesitation...

Diamonds, hearts, clubs, spades.

Half an hour later, I asked him again. After telling me I was a moron, he said:

Diamonds, CLUBS, HEARTS, spades.

Just before I left to go home, I asked him again.

He said:

Diamonds, HEARTS, CLUBS, spades.

3 out of 3 times, he said Diamonds first and Spades last, transposing the hearts and clubs.

Not sure what this is telling me... but it heightens my curiousity a little...

This question was born out of a trick on the Devil's Picture Book, the name of which escapes me. It uses no cards, apart from Madge's, which are used for the prediction, but the rest is patter.

I have, in general, got it spot on (equivoque not withstanding) with all (two) of the women I've done, and generally been out by colour (Spades instead of hearts or clubs instead of diamonds) with all (three) men I've done it with. Now, I don't know if that's a male thing or a "my fault" thing.

I'm wondering whether or not to reverse the process at the beginning of the trick for men.