Generate a Recovery Phrase With Poker Cards
This method uses a standard 52-card deck, including all four suits and excluding Jokers. Each draw maps to a bit sequence in the card table below; the number of bits varies by card. Accumulate 11 bits for each provisional word, repeat for 12 or 24 words, and then follow the final-word procedure.
Use a table like the following to record the resulting bits in the order drawn.
| 1024 | 512 | 256 | 128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Index | Word |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The index is calculated by adding the values in every column containing 1. For example:
| 1024 | 512 | 256 | 128 | 64 | 32 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Index | Word |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
The index is 1024 + 256 + 128 + 8 + 2 = 1418. You do not need to calculate it yourself; use the shared binary words table to find the index and word.
Card-to-Bits Mapping
With a 52-card poker deck, draw one card at a time until you have enough entropy. Return each card to the deck and shuffle it before the next draw.
For each card, find its value in the following table by matching:
- the suit (Spades, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds)
- the rank (A for Ace, 2-10, J for Jack, Q for Queen, K for King).
(This uses a standard 52-card poker deck, excluding Jokers.)
| Suit | Rank | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Spades | A | 00000 |
| Spades | 2 | 00001 |
| Spades | 3 | 00010 |
| Spades | 4 | 00011 |
| Spades | 5 | 00100 |
| Spades | 6 | 00101 |
| Spades | 7 | 00110 |
| Spades | 8 | 00111 |
| Spades | 9 | 01000 |
| Spades | 10 | 01001 |
| Spades | J | 01010 |
| Spades | Q | 01011 |
| Spades | K | 01100 |
| Hearts | A | 01101 |
| Hearts | 2 | 01110 |
| Hearts | 3 | 01111 |
| Hearts | 4 | 10000 |
| Hearts | 5 | 10001 |
| Hearts | 6 | 10010 |
| Hearts | 7 | 10011 |
| Hearts | 8 | 10100 |
| Hearts | 9 | 10101 |
| Hearts | 10 | 10110 |
| Hearts | J | 10111 |
| Hearts | Q | 11000 |
| Hearts | K | 11001 |
| Clubs | A | 11010 |
| Clubs | 2 | 11011 |
| Clubs | 3 | 11100 |
| Clubs | 4 | 11101 |
| Clubs | 5 | 11110 |
| Clubs | 6 | 11111 |
| Clubs | 7 | 0000 |
| Clubs | 8 | 0001 |
| Clubs | 9 | 0010 |
| Clubs | 10 | 0011 |
| Clubs | J | 0100 |
| Clubs | Q | 0101 |
| Clubs | K | 0110 |
| Diamonds | A | 0111 |
| Diamonds | 2 | 1000 |
| Diamonds | 3 | 1001 |
| Diamonds | 4 | 1010 |
| Diamonds | 5 | 1011 |
| Diamonds | 6 | 1100 |
| Diamonds | 7 | 1101 |
| Diamonds | 8 | 1110 |
| Diamonds | 9 | 1111 |
| Diamonds | 10 | 00 |
| Diamonds | J | 01 |
| Diamonds | Q | 10 |
| Diamonds | K | 11 |
If the final draw provides too many bits, truncate the result to the required length.