apologies if this has been covered previously on here but could not really find it specifically when I was searching so thought id would be better to post
first proper post on here and looking for some advice regards the Dominic system, after about 20 years of making excuses and saying that I was gonna get round to it, am finally starting to put pen to paper and do a list, so that I can memorise a deck of cards (just wanna improve my concentration and see if its really possible to do it), the Dominic system seems the most intuitive system, and also I found this video where he is instructing someone on how to memorise a deck of cards in the Netherlands. here is the link below
he seems to be saying have a different image for each card which I think I can actually manage…here was a rough idea for what id use for the suits, have tried to keep them memorable
THE REASON i have NOT done the 00-99 list that I see on here sometimes (using the Dominic system) is that I struggle to make memorable people for certain numbers, even when looking at lists of peoples names, there are certain ones that just dont “jump out” for me. So I thought id try this way instead.
Am going to start working out specific people for each card, but here is an idea for the suits…
hearts - mcu charachters
diamonds - funny/intersting politicians
clubs - sportsmen/women
spades - red dwarf, alan partridge, green wing, the office etc (memorable tv show) charachters
joker - heath ledger (as joker)
can you give me your opinions if possibe…thanks in advance
I would be careful calling the system of ‘encoding’ the cards the way that you are suggesting the “Dominic System”. If one were to use the Dominic system to encode cards say for the suit of Clubs: (C10, Club Ace, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7, C8, C9) they would be represented by the Dominic characters: 30 through to 39. Diamonds: (D10, Diamond Ace, D2, D3…D9) would be his characters 40 through to 49. Spades: (Spade 10, Spade Ace, S2, S3, S4…S9) would be hischaracters 60 through to 69. Lastly, Hearts: (H10, Heart Ace, H2, H3, H4… H9) would be characters 80 through to 89. For the picture cards you wouldn’y follow Dominic system of coding but rather have: King Clubs = Tiger Woods, King Hearts = Elvis Prestley, King of Diamonds = Bill Gates etc…
I agree with fred for the court cards - I personally have those encoded as ‘Character Cards’ (based on the themes you have identified - e.g: King of Clubs would be the male you consider the best sportsman).
Then encode the number card using a number to letter system (I used Rhyming Letter Getters as I find it the fastest to decode).
Based on the initials you can ‘cast’ people you instinctively think of first and then do some work filling in the others. I’d suggest placing them in a ‘Loci’ (10/15 at a time) and that way you’ll be able to memorise the list effectively quite quickly but most importantly for the long term.
I know that creating the 00-99 cast list takes some time and research and then memorising BUT as I am always saying - you only ever have to do it once - and it will be used forever.
I think you might be getting a few things mixed up here.
The Dominic system is intended for turning numbers into memorable images, by turning each number into a letter-based abbreviation. Like 80 becoming “HO”, which could become the image of Santa Claus for example.
See also our wiki page:
Sidenote:
You might end up with numbers that are harder to imagine, that is natural. Practice makes perfect here, and even if an association starts off weak, it will become stronger with practice.
Now, moving on to the cards. What you have is perfectly valid, I use a similar system for cards and I have even used this to create my millennium PAO. I call it a category system, but some different names have been used as well.
It seems you have your categories down pretty well, so next would be to assign the cards. What I recommend is to make some associations.
6 of hearts could be the Hulk for example, as the 6 could look like an arm with a fist.
King of diamonds could be Donald Trump, for being a pretty interesting POTUS.
7 of clubs could be Christiano Ronaldo, for famously playing the backnumber 7
You get the idea
Perhaps you might also be interested in our getting started guide, for some useful tips and tricks:
thanks for getting back, much appreciated, I supposed its a case of creating the 00-99 list then lol , not going to lie, getting really memorable images for some of the numbers feels almost impossible, but then again maybe thats just me being lazy…thanks again for getting back
really good advice thanks…again as ive said before to previous replies, id be happy to use the 00-99 system but I really struggle to make some of the people “memoreable” if I could stick in people like Donald Trump, or Geroge Dubya Bush, or even Boris Johnson/Jacob Rees Mogg for the difficult (less memoreable numbers), that would make it SO SO much more memoreable and easier to recall given that they are intersting/humourous etc…but maybe that totally defeats the purpose of the whole system, just find it SO hard to make them memoreable and amusing…as I think thats really key to getting it to stick…but thanks for taking the time to get back to me
What may help you in making your Dominic Cast more memorable is to find cartoons of the characters you have chosen. I have found that often the caricatures of the individuals that have been chosen to fit ones Dominic (or any other coding system for that matter) just makes the images of your chosen cast that much more memorable than say a ‘normal boring photograph’ of them. If possible find a cartoon that has the Action and the Object in the cartoon together. For example, There is a cartoon depiction on the internet that shows Tiger Woods with some mixed Tiger (the animal Tiger that is) attributes. The cartoon is mistakenly Tiger Woods (the man), although the artist has given him a colourful tiger’s tail. The cartoon in question also shows Tiger Woods ‘Driving’ = (Action) with his Golf Club = (Object). You will find that cartoons exist on the internet for all the famous people you have chosen in your 00-99 cast. If you can’t find a suitable cartoon then consider changing your chosen characters. As the “Movie Director” of your chosen cast of characters you are at liberty to hire and fire any of them at will.
To help them stick: Spend time getting the full cast decided. Then place them in a Loci so you can walk around and identify each. It really does work. I just had a magician who has tried for years to learn a pre-ordered stack. Then with just 10 cards a day visualised, we got him to memorise the stack perfectly in 5 sessions. (so in total just under an hour) - and he has had zero miss-calls since. So I can really testify it works.
, not going to lie, getting really memorable images for some of the numbers feels almost impossible, but then again maybe thats just me being lazy…thanks again for getting back 
