Jax received a distressing phone call about his father, John. Apparently, John had lost all his will to live. When Jax got to his father's bedside, John flashed a card to Jax, explaining that it was part of the lucky hand called the "Dead-Man's Hand." John explained that the other four were stolen. Jax, the dutiful man he is, promised John that he would find the other four for him. Jax headed to a local bar, where he met Samantha McCall, a very pretty, but feisty, woman. What Jax wasn't aware of was that Sam was on the look for the Dead-Man's Hand because they have brought her family generations of bad luck.

Jax and Sam started off by playing poker, a game in which Jax won. Later on, Sam arrived to Jax's hotel room and she stole the jack of diamonds card. Jax returned to the bar when he got a call from a mysterious caller (who was really A.J. Quartermaine). Jax learned that Sam's great grandfather killed Bill Hickock while he was holding the Dead-Man's Hand. Jax was then knocked out, but he later awakened and confronted Sam on her old boat. Jax managed to get his jack of diamonds card back from Sam. Unfortunately, they were forced to abandon the boat when it caught on fire. Jax and Sam were forced to take refuge on an island, and they called a truce during the time that they were stranded. However, Jax caught Sam attempting to steal the jack of diamonds card again. Two surfers arrived to the island, and they began to harass Sam. Jax learned that these two men were out to get the Dead-Man's Hand. Jax overpowered the men and tied them up; that's when he learned that they were trying to get the cards for someone in upstate New York. It was revealed that AJ was the holder of the other four cards, and he sent the men to retrieve the jack of diamonds. When Sam turned on Jax, she ran off leaving Jax on the island with the two men. Jax returned to Port Charles and he found Sam in his suite... dressed as a maid!

Sam and Jax challenged each other to find the other four cards of the Dead-Man's Hand. Jax and Sam were becoming suspicious of AJ. So, Sam snuck into the Quartermaine Mansion to find the remaining cards, and was snagged by Jax. Then, AJ caught Jax and Sam in the mansion. To avoid suspicion, Jax told AJ that he and Sam were dating. Jax attempted to teach Sam to be more proper and lady-like to make their dating charade believable. However, AJ wasn't so naïve because he seen right through their lies. AJ ordered Coleman to find out what Jax and Sam were up to. While Coleman was befriending Sam, Jax and Skye were discussing the Dead-Man's Hand while Luke Spencer, a fugitive Skye was hiding in her home, was eavesdropping. When Jax and Skye left, Luke found the cards of the Dead-Man's Hand enclosed in the pages of a book. Luke then took one of the cards, and left. After all of this, Jax got back the jack of diamonds card from Sam. Sam snuck back into the Quartermaine mansion and she overheard Dillon Quartermaine on the phone with his mother, Tracy. Dillon had stolen the remaining three cards from AJ for Tracy. Sam confronted Dillon about the cards. When asked why they were so important to her, Sam gave him a false story (which was identical to Jax's real story) about how her father was dying and he needed the cards to live. Later, Skye stole the card Luke stole from AJ and she gave it to Jax, which Sam spotted. Sam and Jax got into an argument about the cards, but they ended up in a liplock. Meanwhile, Luke went to ask Dillon about the cards, but Dillon didn't reveal that he had them. To assure the cards' safety, Dillon's girlfriend, Georgie Jones, hid them in her bedroom. Skye told Luke that she wouldn't help him obtain the remaining cards. At the suite, Sam drugged Jax and stole the two cards he had from the Dead-Man's Hand set. Later, Jax confronted Dillon and offered him $3 million for the other three cards. Meanwhile, Sam arrived to Georgie's house impersonating a math tutor. Georgie had been having trouble perfecting her math grade, so it was the perfect opportunity for Sam to search her room for the cards. Sam managed to get Georgie to leave the room briefly, and then she stole the remaining three cards. This was the moment of triumph for Sam: she had all five pieces of the Dead-Man's Hand.

However, Sam would soon lose them all over again. A disguised Luke stole the cards from Sam. Then, he arrived to the Halloween Ball dressed as a magician. In an illegal auction, Luke sold the Dead-Man's Hand to Jax. However, all the auction attendees fainted when an odorless gas was pumped into the room via the vent. A person, wearing special equipment, walked in the room and stole the cards from Jax's hand. Later on, the person who stole the cards turned out to be Chase, a lover from Sam's past. Chase offered to give the cards to Sam for something in return: one night alone with her! Sam 'accepted' the offer, and went to his motel room with him. Sam planned on knocking Chase out, and stealing the cards from him so that she didn't have to spend the night with him. However, Jax's interruption prevented Sam from doing so. Jax picked her up, and carried her out of the motel room. Due to this, Sam began to suspect Jax of having feelings for her. Jax denied it. When Chase agreed to sell the Dead-Man's Hand to Jax, Chase found out that they were stolen! Outside of Jax and Chase's meeting place, Georgie and Dillon congratulated themselves for successfully stealing the cards from Chase without being caught (Dillon was a pick-pocketer). However, Jax caught them outside the club and he told Dillon about his situation involving his dad and how the cards meant everything to him. Dillon faced a tough decision: stay loyal to Tracy or help Jax save his father. Dillon ultimately gave Jax the cards. Sam snuck into Jax's car when Jax went to present the Dead-Man's Hand to John. Jax caught Sam and, unfortunately, they ended up stranded in a desert. Jax wanted to get to his father's bedside, but Sam wanted to test the luck of the Dead-Man's Hand at a casino. When Jax wasn't looking, Sam yanked cords out his car to sabotage it. Jax and Sam had no choice but to go into the casino. Sam tried convincing Jax that the cards were lucky, but Jax didn't believe it. However, Jax was shocked when he won a yacht. Jax then gave the yacht to Sam. Jax and Sam then made love!

Jax and Sam arrived to the hospital to give John the Dead-Man's Hand. John woke up and seen his son. John was pleased to see Jax at his bedside and he whispered, "Jax." Then John's machines began going off. Despite the doctors' best efforts, John ended up dying. Sam was plagued with guilt because she prevented Jax from arriving to the hospital in time to save John. That night, Sam gave Jax comfort and the two made love. However, Jax received a phone call, and he learned that Sam sabotaged his car. Jax began pushing Sam away. Jax told Sam to take the Dean-Man's Hand and leave town. Despite the opportunity, Sam didn't take the cards. After Sam left, Tracy Quartermaine herself sneaked into Jax's hotel room and stole the cards. Sam arrived to John's funeral and Jax told her that she wasn't welcome. Later on, Sam realized that someone stole the Dead-Man's Hand from Jax's suite. Sam then caught Tracy leaving one of the cards from the set for Jax. Sam was about to hit Tracy when Jax arrived. After Sam left, Tracy asked Jax if he would want to be partners with her in opening a casino. Later, Luke and Skye teamed up to assure that Jax & Tracy's plans wouldn't work.

Luke and Sam met up and they had a dispute over The Haunted Star (the yacht Jax won for Sam at the casino). Sam claimed that the yacht belonged to her, but Luke claimed ownership of it. Luke told Tracy that he had the one gambling permit allowed in Port Charles and that he planned to turn The Haunted Star into a floating casino! Skye, to settle the dispute between Luke and Sam over ownership of the yacht, convinced Luke and Sam to form a partnership. Meanwhile, Jax and Sam vowed revenge against each other. Despite this, Sam admitted to Skye that she has developed genuine feelings for Jax. Later, Jax gave Sam the Dead-Man's Hand and told her that they can't be together anymore. Sam gave a homeless man the cards, but the homeless man turned up to be Luke in disguise.

Though Sam washed her hands of the cards, she found herself in another sticky situation. Sam was driving down the street when Sonny Corinthos, who had just tried to kill Lorenzo Alcazar, ran right in front of her truck and stopped her. Sonny then took Sam hostage and forced her to drive away from the crime scene. Despite how they 'met', Sonny and Sam soon became lovers, and it wasn't long before Sam became pregnant. Once Sonny and Carly reunited, Jason claimed the baby as his own, but it wasn't long before the truth came out. Sam eagerly awaited the birth of her child, but was soon dealing with another secret -- years ago she had sought out her mother, who had wanted nothing to do with her, and her mother had died in a fire. Her step-father, Stuart Mest, had implicated Sam in Evelyn's death, but the fire was really set by Danny, Sam's mentally challenged half-brother, whom Stuart and Evelyn had kept a virtual prisoner. Sam was cleared and looked forward to raising her child, but then young Kristina got sick and desperately needed the stem cells from Sam's baby's umbilical cord, since no one in the families was a match. Although Sam was reluctant to risk the baby's life she had finally agreed to have labor induced, but tragedy struck and the baby died at birth. Thankfully for Kristina, the stem cells were still viable.

Sam grew closer to Jason after the death of the baby, whom she named Lila in honor of Lila Quartermaine, and the two even made plans to adopt 'Hope', the infant daughter of one of Courtney's foundation kids. When Hope was returned to Bridget and her grandmother, Sam swore she would never forgive Jason and began moving away from him, and was even suspected of having kidnapped Michael, Kristina and Morgan, but she and Jason eventually paired up in an attempt to get the kids back from Faith Rosco. While hunting for the children, Sam and Jason were able to put the past behind them and begin working on the future. They eventually tracked the kids back to A.J., the real killer, but were devastated when only Kristina and Morgan were saved. It wasn't long, though, before they realized Michael was still alive and A.J. was on the run with him, and the two followed him back to Port Charles. They were able to rescue Michael from A.J., who died after a fall while struggling with Jason, and Sam was able to reach out to Michael when he shut down.

Sam became suspicious after learning that Michael's therapist, Dr. Asher Thomas, also treated Jason years earlier, and he seemed to have a creepy fascination with her. She and Jason finally took Michael and left town after they realized that someone was making sure that Michael went to prison for A.J.'s murder, but during their time away from Port Charles, realized that Michael had created an imaginary friend named Jodie for himself that 'knew the truth' about that night. When Sam was held in custody after going to the mainland for supplies, Jason had a breakthrough with Michael that led him to the realisation that Dr. Thomas was connected to his own memories. Sam and Jason brought Michael back to Port Charles, and were immediately arrested. Ric was able to spring them. Sam and Jason realized that the truth to who murdered A.J. was locked in Jason's memory, so against Sam's pleas, Jason took an experimental memory drug, and finally remembered when Dr. Thomas tried to kill him. Jason ended up in the hospital suffering the after-effects of the drug, and when Sam interrupted Dr. Thomas' attempt to kill Jason, he took her hostage and fled. Sam was saved, Dr. Thomas was killed, and Sonny sent Sam and Jason on a vacation together.

Sam and Jason didn't get much chance to enjoy their vacation before they were kidnapped by a mysterious woman named Allegra, who needed Sam to impersonate her dead daughter, Alicia, and marry Alicia's fiancé, Andrew, so that Allegra could be rich once again. Sam agreed, because Allegra was holding Jason hostage in her cellar, but soon learned that Alicia, a dead ringer for her, was alive and well. Sam married Andrew, but confessed the truth to him. She and Andrew made their way back to the mansion, but Sam later found a dead Andrew next to an unconscious Jason. Sam was arrested and charged with Andrew's murder, but Allegra showed she had a heart after all when she arranged to free Sam, and had her own daughter, who was the real killer, imprisoned in her place. Jason disappeared after suffering another seizure and losing his memory altogether, and after a few red herrings, Sam followed him home to Port Charles. After Alan arranged to have Jason admitted to the hospital and restrained, Sam held a gun on him to get him to let Jason go, but Alan was able to convince her of the severity of Jason's condition. Sam was devastated when Alan and Monica told them both that Jason was going to die.

Sam called Jason's old girlfriend Robin, who had become a specialist in brain disorders. Although her treatment was not successful in curing Jason on it's own, the surgery Jason went through was able to do what nothing else had done before. Jason finally remembered Sam after falling in love with her all over again as an amnesiac, but the constant presence of Manny Ruiz, who had tortured them on their vacation in Hawaii and then ended up in Port Charles, began causing problems for them. Manny threatened Sam, even breaking into the apartment, and on more than one occasion Jason came close to killing him. When the encephalitis plague hit Port Charles, both Danny and Sam became ill. Sam nearly died, and tragically, Danny did die. Sam recovered after the serum made it to Port Charles, but blamed Alexis Davis for Danny's death, since Danny would have received the serum if Alexis had turned it down. Danny's death also opened a new door in Sam's life -- as he lay dying, Danny told Sam about their parents having 'chose' her. She had Robin run a DNA test on her and Danny, and Robin confirmed that Sam and Danny were not biologically related. Sam was devastated to realise she had been adopted and had never known it, and wasn't sure if she wanted to know who her real mother was. Oh but that is just the beginning! To find out the exciting conclusion, tune into GH on your local ABC affliate or weeknights on SoapNet