Have you ever wondered how street magicians could guess what card you've picked even if they didn't even touched it or did any shuffles with it?
What you're about to read is basically the secret of the trick us magicians commonly call as “CHASED”. Magic has been around since probably at the early stages of civilization. Historians believed that magic started in Egypt when they saw this artistic painting on the walls of an old Egyptian ruin wherein it depicts the “Cup and Balls” trick. Some scholars even ventured that magic is the second oldest profession out there.
C-H-A-S-E-D!
The Effect
Magician shows the deck to the spectator, convincing him that the deck is not gimmicked or arranged in any way. Spectator then shuffles the deck and takes one card out of it.
Amazingly, without any hesitations, the magician guessed the spectator's chosen card.
The Secret
The truth is, the deck is arranged. How?
The word “CHASED” is simply the mnemonic on how street magicians memorized their deck. If we take all the vowels out of the word it will look like “CHSD” which means Clubs, Hearts, Spades, and Diamonds. The first letter of the suits in a deck can be found in the word “CHSD” and also it shows how the deck should be arranged according to suit.
We are not done yet. After knowing how to arrange the deck by suit (Clubs, Hearts, Spades, Diamonds), we are now ready to arrange the deck by card. Now, what we basically do is add 3 so we would know what card should be put next.
Here is a clearer explanation:
Ace of Clubs + 3 = 4 of Hearts
4 of Hearts + 3 = 7 of Spades
7 of Spades + 3 =10 of Diamonds
Basically the arrangement will look like this:
Ace of Clubs, 4 of Hearts, 7 of Spades, 10 of Diamonds, King of Clubs, 3 of Hearts, 6 of Spades, 9 of Diamonds and so on….
Note that the suits are following the (CHSD) format. Also, keep in mind that we basically do here is just adding 3 card positions up. After arranging the deck you are now ready to do street magic!
How to perform CHASED?
Find a spectator and say something about mind reading. Tell him that you can read his mind using a normal deck. Tell him that there are 52 cards in one deck and show him that deck has no gimmick whatsoever. Spread the deck with the faces down. Ask him to take one card out of the deck and look at it without you seeing the chosen card. You should know where he took the card from.
While he is looking at the card, secretly take a glimpse on your deck where he took the card from and identify the card which is just beside his chosen card. Add 3 to it and eventually you'll know what his chosen card is without you seeing it.
Here is an example:
When you secretly glimpse at where he got his card from, you saw the 3 of clubs. What you do then is add 3 positions up to the 3 of clubs…
So we have now 6 of hearts. After that, you pretend to be entering your spectator's mind. Don't guess his card right away because this will remove the thrill of the trick. Take a while before guessing the spectator's card.
You can reveal the card in anyway; you can write it down a piece of paper or draw a picture of the card he picked. Feel free to modify the trick.
Always remember that true magic is not what a magician does but what the spectators feel after what he does.
