To hear Chris Kobayashi tell it, magic saved him from a lot of trouble. The University of Northern Colorado graduate student and Kane'ohe native has created card tricks — effects, is what he calls them — that he is marketing to magic companies. He does shows and has posted videos of his illusions on YouTube, all while working on his master's in English and teaching two classes.

It started with an unhealthy fixation on gambling and getting tricked by someone trickier.

"After graduating from high school (McKinley), I attended several graduation parties, one in which taught me to play poker," Kobayashi said in an e-mail interview. "From that point on, gambling became more than a recreational activity."

During his sophomore year in college, he and another student hosted poker games three times a week in the freshman dorm. They devised a clever way to hide the bets in plain sight and conducted the games under the guise of studying.

"The two of us were a pretty good team, sometimes working together to win and splitting the winnings at the end. Our 'teamwork' helped to further ensure winning, driving this habit to extreme levels."

They branched out to bigger fish off campus with older college students. Then they got hustled. "I got cheated in poker by a close friend, which is why I started to learn card mechanics -gambler's grip, second deal, bottom deal, false shuffles, false cuts, et cetera," he said.

A friend showed him the tricks and other illusions. "He disappeared a small green handkerchief and changed my $1 into a $5 bill, 6 inches from my face," Kobayashi said. "I was baffled and that's when it all started for me."

Since then, he's pushed away from the poker table and found a rush perfecting his effects. As an undergraduate, he performed at the North Colorado Medical Center once a week, going through the surgery recovery floor and doing effects for patients. These days, he has his graduate classes, courses he teaches, volunteer tutoring at an elementary school and performances once a month at a nursing home.

Kobayashi is scheduled to graduate in spring 2010. After that, he plans to travel and write. He has a manuscript, "Broken Deck," based on his experiences that he hopes to have published. He doesn't see himself performing illusions professionally, though.

"Most importantly, my interest in magic has taken me away from the poker table, placing me in an environment of encouragement and generosity," he said. "I feel like I'm contributing to my community and making the lives of people, even if only for a moment, a little better."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.