COACH PROFILE
Cory Mikesell
Professional online poker player · National Chess Master · Run It Once Elite Coach · PLO Author across 4, 5 & 6 card formats
The Rare Kind of Educator
Cory Mikesell isn’t a poker coach who got decent at one game and built a course around it. He’s a systematic thinker with credentials that span disciplines: a National Chess Master, a psychology graduate with a minor in Anthropology, and a multilingual professional who plays, teaches, and writes in three languages. That combination — analytical depth, psychological awareness, and genuine expertise across multiple PLO formats — makes him one of the most complete educators in the game today.
His home base for video content has been Run It Once Elite, where he’s been a contributor across multiple years. RIO Elite is invitation-only at the coach level — which tells you something about the standard Mikesell operates at.
Chess
National Master
3 Lang
DE · RU · ES
4–6 Card
PLO Formats
RIO Elite
Video Coach
His Teaching Philosophy
What separates Mikesell from most PLO coaches is his commitment to frameworks over recipes. He doesn’t hand you a range chart and say “play this.” He teaches you the structural logic behind decisions — logic that holds true regardless of whether solvers get updated, game types evolve, or opponents adjust. His stated goal is to teach students how to answer their own questions using poker truths that never become obsolete.
This approach produces a very specific type of student: one who becomes progressively more dangerous as their understanding deepens, rather than one who needs to buy a new course every time the meta shifts.
His HUPLO database — which he describes as covering every line at every stack size in heads-up PLO — is widely considered the most complete analytical resource for that format in existence. It’s the backbone of the Heads-Up PLO: The Definitive Guide.
All Cory Mikesell Content — One Place, Best Prices
The complete library of Mikesell’s books, video courses, and Run It Once Elite content is available through ElitePokerGuide.io at discounts up to 91% off original retail prices. For the full breakdown of every product — with a comparison table, level recommendations, and detailed descriptions — see the main review:
COMPLETE BUYER’S GUIDE
Cory Mikesell Poker Content in 2026
Full review, comparison table, and course-by-course recommendations
