It only takes a few good hands in Hold ‘Em to give yourself a big lead over the other players. They say that anyone can play good hands in Hold ‘Em — or , etc. — but the reality is that you have to figure out how to extract the most money from the other players when you get the nuts. Here are two hands, from two separate games, that I felt I played well, which gave me a dominating position in each game.

The button is just to my left, so I am next to last to act. I look down at the speed limit, . So, I limp in to the family pot of five players. The flop comes and, of course, I’m looking for a 5 to give me a set. The first two cards are and . Perfect! I look at the other players to gauge their reaction to the flop, then look back down, and the third card is - I’ve floped quad 5s!

So, now I just have to figure out how to extract the most money from this pot, which I have almost assuredly won. The first player to act bets, two other players call, and I smooth call. The turn comes with a . The first player again bets and gets one or two callers (I can’t quite remember!). I raise about double his bet — not enough to scare him away, but just enough to try to get him to commit some more chips to the pot, which he willingly does. The other players fold.

I can’t remember the final card, but it was a blank as well. The first player bets into me again and I immediately go all-in. At this point he felt like he had to call, ashe had invested so much money into the pot, so he did. He asked, “Do you have the 5?”, knowing the his top pair with a 10 kicker would be beat by a set. I toss up my quads and everyone at the table is shocked, especially him.

I was second in chip lead and the other players were way behind. I ended up splitting the winnings 60-40 with the chip leader once it got down to heads-up.

The next game, just a few hands in, I limp in with . The flop comes giving me the nut straight. I place a fairly significant bet and get four callers! The turn comes a and I bet large again and all four again call. The final card was , pairing the board. Since I had four callers I was somewhat concerned that someone might have pocket Qs, 10s, or 9s and could have just made their full house, so I check.

The next person checks, then the 2nd player goes all-in. At this point I am concerned that I have let him hit a river card to make his boat. I stare at the board and think about how the hand was played. I’m fairly pot committed at this point — if I fold I would be short stacked early on in the game. I recall that no one bet before the flop, which seems odd if someone had a pair of queens, tens, or nines. Also, I know that the player going all-in could be bluffing, as he has in past games. So, I reluctantly call.

He flips up his J-7 and I am quite releaved! He was chasing the straight and decided to bluff at the end once the board paired, representing the full house. Unfortunately for him, I called. Plus, even if he had made his straight, mine would have beat him.

I had doubled up early on in the game again and just waited for cards and was able to win this one!

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My girlfriend and her sister (Carrie and Kelli Colbert, respectively) grace the cover of Better Homes and Garden’s first ever Scrapbooks, etc. idea book! Carrie (at BHG’s request) had the photos of her and her sister taken and created the layout that is used on the cover as well. Cool!!!

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