Some players are so afraid of getting bluffed out of a pot that they will call you on every street. Against these calling stations, you will have to show down the best hand.

So, if you're going to pick a spot to bluff, you need to pick an opponent who is capable of laying down a hand, as top pro Andrew Black did at the World Poker Tour's $15,000-buy-in Doyle Brunson World Poker Classic at Las Vegas' Bellagio in 2007.

With blinds at $200-$400, a player in late position made it $1,200 to go. Action folded to Black, who was on the button with the 2-4 of diamonds, not a hand you want to call a raise with. But Black had position and a read on his opponent.

"He was a guy who's a very, very solid player and had shown the capacity to fold if a player raised or re-raised him on the flop," said Black, who finished seventh in the 2006 World Series of Poker main event. "I made it $3,500."

Black was hoping to take the pot right there, but his opponent called. Two-handed, they took a flop of A-3-6, two clubs. The initial raiser checked. Black bet $5,000. His opponent check-raised to $10,000.

"He's re-raised me to $10,000, but he didn't look that happy about it," Black said, "so I decided to call him. He has another $17,000, and I reckoned that if he checked to me and I bet him all in, he'd fold A-Q. Also, if a flush came up, I could represent it, and I could hit the 5 (for a straight)."

The turn came the 10 of hearts.

"He checked, and I've got about $34,000," Black said. "I put him all in for the $17,000, and he thinks and thinks and throws away the A-Q.

"I didn't know he had A-Q, but I had a sense he had that type of hand. I also had a sense that he might fold. I had a read on him. That's the key thing. He's the type of guy who would fold a hand. He didn't want to go all in, so when he checked on fourth street, I didn't think there was any hand he could have that he would call all in with that he wouldn't bet first."

It didn't matter that Black held 2-4. He could've held anything. He just had to have the guts to bet enough to convince his opponent he was beaten.

"You do have to have the guts to fire, and you have to have the guts to call the $5,000 (check-raise), or the stupidity to hope that he's going to check," Black said with a smile.

"This guy was definitely to the extreme of weak-tight, so there was a lot of evidence to show that it was worth calling him, and if he checked (on the turn), his check was as good as a fold at this point in the tournament."

Table talk

Weak-tight: The type of player who only plays good hands but doesn't play them as aggressively as he should.

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