Provided is a method of nucleic acid amplification. In one embodiment, the method comprises performing nucleic acid amplification on a target polynucleotide using a nucleic acid polymerase having 5′ to 3′ nuclease activity, a primer capable of hybridizing to the target polynucleotide, and an oligonucleotide probe under amplification conditions such that the probe hybridizes to the target polynucleotide 3′ relative to the primer and the probe does not hybridize with itself to form a hairpin structure. The oligonucleotide probe has at one end a fluorescent reporter and at the other end a quencher that quenches the fluorescence of the reporter molecule when both the fluorescent reporter and quencher are attached to the probe. Digestion of the oligonucleotide probe by the polymerase during amplification is effective to separate the reporter from the quencher, whereby a fluorescence signal of the reporter is increased.