Maximizing Profit On Your Big Blind Special

Whenever you play poker for more than a few rounds of blinds you inevitably catch one or two "Big Blind Specials". That's when you get to see a flop for free from the big blind with a trash hand and flop a monster. The problem with BB specials is that most of the time they're hard to squeeze any money out of, because once you check and call on the flop , you opponent will usually slow down on the turn if you check (unless he also has a monster), forcing you to value-bet the river hoping to get a crying call and make a few extra bucks. So when I got to see a free flop of 6-A-6 with 6-5 off in the big blind today I tried a different tack. There were several people in the pot and we all checked to the button, who bet about half the pot (it was No Limit). I was next to act, and instead of flat-calling with my trips, I min-raised, doubling his bet. This drove everyone else out, and the button called. I bet about half the pot on the turn and about a third of the pot on the river, and I got the button to call me down with Ace-Ten. I'm sure that if I had not raised on the flop he would not have bet the turn, and then I would have been forced to make that tiny value-bet on the river to try to squeeze a few extra bucks out of him. The other very positive aspect to this play is that by raising immediately I found out right away whether anyone else had a 6, as that player would obviously have also called my raise (and probably with a better kicker than my 5), and I also prevented anyone who might have called the original bet with a medium pair from getting any kind of odds to catch their two-outer later in the hand.
I've also recently lost a couple of hands with medium pairs like 8's when the flop was along the lines of 6-3-3 and one of the blinds value-bet his 4-3 offsuit all the way to the river. Since so many players will bet an Ace-six or even a draw like 4-5 in this spot it's very tough to get away from that kind of flop when you have an overpair, and especially so when the bets you have to call are all small in relation to the size of the pot. I like this strategy of betting out right away as well, especially when you have kicker trouble and really can't stand much of a raise. By betting out you are controlling the size of the pot, and if by chance you do run into a full house or trips with a bigger kicker and get raised on the end, you can call for a smaller price or even throw away your hand because the pot might not be big enough and you feel your hand just can't be any good.