Your palms begin to sweat and your heart pounds in your chest. You have just realized that you have four of a kind on the flop. You frantically wonder if anyone else has a good enough hand to stick with you until the end. Will everyone fold? What do I have to do to extract the most money out of my opponents? Do I look obvious? These are all the questions that rush through your head when you hit a big hand and it is important you consider each and everyone while you are playing. Being able to extract maximum bets when you hit a monster hand is absolutely essential when it comes to being a profitable poker player. While winning with a monster hand is a breeze, the real challenge is getting as much money possible for the great hand you have. This article will cover strategies and tactics for extracting that money!

What to do first

When you first strike that monster hand do one thing and actually make sure it is a true monster. With a monster we are talking one that either is the nuts or has such a low chance of losing, you might as well just play it as the nuts. If your hand meets these criteria then go ahead and proceed!

One important consideration right away with a monster is what kind of game you are playing in. If you find yourself in a loose, low stakes game, then frankly slow playing is usually a bad idea. Believe it or not, in a low stakes game, your best chance of extracting the most money is to just go ahead with a straight forward aggressive betting and raising strategy. Is this set in stone? Of course not, if you think someone else has a monster too and they are going to try and slow play or use some type of trickery, then go ahead and use it right back at them IF it will extract more money. Don’t just do it for show.

If you are in a medium or high stakes game, then there are a few more considerations you will need to make. Good players are actually susceptible to more deception than idiot players. Now this might seem strange, but good players sometimes will overanalyze situations and because of this you can extract more money from them when you have a monster hand. Use check and raise to trap moderate players on the turn, or use it to make a good player think you are trying to slow him down, when actually all you are trying to do is make him comfortable enough to continue in the hand and pay you off.

Final considerations

Playing a great hand right is critical to your success. Despite the fact that you think you never get giant hands, they actually make up a big percentage of your profit so it is important you play them properly. In low stakes or loose games, just play the hand for what it is unless you see some convincing circumstances to do otherwise. In a higher stakes game, carefully analyze your competition and then make the best move based on that information.