I used to be an avid Hearts player. I recall the moment when I had an sudden epiphany; I was able to remember which cards have been played. I don’t know exactly how I did it, but I was doing it. I think by examining what cards I had/passed/received I was able to focus more of my energies on specific suits. I went from being a consistent last place player to a feared Shoot The Moon bastard. I want to get back into Hearts, and finally learn Bridge. But I don’t even want to try without having a memory system in place so I can “see” played cards and extrapolate possible hands.
Regardless, I’m curious as to what systems other Hearts players use. I don’t want to build a palace that is larger than I need for this game. Or do I?
Would this system work equally as well for other trick-taking games, specifically Contract Bridge? I’d be very much interested if someone used method A for Hearts, but method B for Bridge and why.
With Hearts, you generally want to know how many cards of a suit that are still being held (have yet to been played) and how many cards above your highest need to be discarded before you can trump the rest of the suit. It’s difficult to explain, but feels natural when you’re playing.
Just brainstorming, but you could try using some combination of a number memorization system and a memory palace to keep track of the numbers — one location for each round. If you have to remember multiple numbers per round, you could try chaining them inside each location with the story method, using the same order each time.