In poker, beginners often spend a lot of time grasping at straws, searching for a big trick to elevate their play. The truth is that success in cash games rarely comes from a single flashy move. It’s built on mastering fundamentals, reducing mistakes in common spots, and gradually adding some advanced strategies. That’s exactly where the Run It Once Essential Membership shines.
With a library of accessible, well-structured training content, Run It Once Essential membership offers players the chance to learn from proven coaches who specialize in making advanced concepts easy to understand. Below are 10 beginner-friendly tips you can take directly from the Essential catalog, along with the video lessons that go in-depth.
1. Master the Small Pots
Most players obsess over big, dramatic hands. But as Alexandra Fagaras points out in her lesson, the pots that look small on the surface usually determine your long-term success. Situations like playing against the big blind, defending the big blind, or flatting against early position opens happen constantly. If you’re leaking chips in these spots, the damage adds up quickly.
Her advice is simple: focus on learning the fundamentals of playing common spots. This will build a stronger baseline game and keep you from bleeding away on the felt.
2. Exploit the Competition in Multiway Pots
Multiway pots can be intimidating because ranges tighten and your equities run close together. Pedro Fernandes spends this lesson showing how to construct a plan when you’re the in-position player and the blinds both call.
Remember that every position has incentives for betting versus checking. Even multiway, you can and should c-bet often with the right sizing. Fernandes emphasizes sticking to smaller bets, which protect your range while extracting value. These spots can be tricky, but follow Fernandes’ blueprint and you can build confidence to attack them.
3. Learn How to Review Your Hands
If you only play sessions and never look back, you’re leaving massive improvement on the table. Max Lacerda shares his process for reviewing difficult hands by plugging them into solvers.
Lacerda suggests starting with trackers like PokerTracker 4 to collect data and lean on resources like GTO Wizard for solver analysis. Reviewing even a handful of hands after each session will sharpen your understanding of mistakes, successes, and all the hands in-between.
4. Play 3-Bet Pots as Small Blind vs Cutoff
It’s no secret that playing out of position in a 3-bet pot is tricky. In this training session, Steve Paul walks through how to approach decision points as the small blind after 3-betting against a cutoff open.
Paul uses GTO Wizard’s quiz mode to drill these spots, encouraging players to practice patterns rather than memorize one-off hands. For beginners, drilling this spot will help you feel familiar and develop confidence in-game.
5. Barrel Turn as a Bluff
It’s easy to know that you should c-bet flops often, but what happens when your opponent calls? Dekkers123 explains how to approach turn barreling in these situations, focusing on how your bluffing range evolves after the flop.
This tip reminds new players not to “freeze up” when their flop c-bet doesn’t end the hand. The turn is a chance to keep building the pot—with bluffs or value—if you understand which cards are good for your range.
6. Be Unexploitable Blind on Blind
Blind-versus-blind battles happen often but rarely studied. Steve Paul shows how to defend against c-bets in these spots, especially with marginal hands that look like easy folds at first glance.
Folding too much in blind-on-blind pots gives up equity you can’t afford to lose. You don’t have to go crazy, but learning how to defend effectively prevents opponents from running you over.
7. Analyze Your Hand Database
Numbers don’t lie. In this lesson, Pedro Fernandes reviews a Run It Once member’s database to show how leaks appear in win rates and positional breakdowns.
New players rarely realize how valuable their own data is. By breaking down your database, you can start to notice patterns in your play as well as your opponents. Maybe you’re losing too much in the small blind, or your 3-bet frequency is too low. Identifying leaks this way accelerates your growth as a player understanding common spots.
8. Triple Barreling
The idea of firing three streets as a bluff feels terrifying to most players, much less beginners. Frankie Carson makes it a bit less scary by breaking down when and why it makes sense.
His tip is not to go overboard, but to recognize that sometimes the best way to win is to represent strong ranges across flop, turn, and river with the right blockers. Learning how and when to triple barrel builds courage and stops you from being predictable to play against.
9. Playing Monotone Boards
Monotone flops, or three cards of the same suit, are uncomfortable. With flushes available and a fourth suit changing the ranges dramatically, it can freeze players up. Steve Paul highlights how to defend against c-bets on these dicey textures.
Rather than panicking, keep in mind that monotone boards are understudied and therefore prime for improvement. By learning how to defend properly, you’ll avoid making costly folds in a spot that can be dominated by those in the know.
10. Check-raising the Flop
Finally, Steve Paul takes on check-raising. This tactic helps you take initiative out of position. He guides players through practice sessions to understand when and how to raise flops against players that are over c-betting.
Check-raising isn’t about wild aggression. It’s about selectively applying pressure when the board and ranges align. Getting comfortable with this tool adds depth to your game and nuance for your opponent to consider each time you are heads up.
Run It Once Essential Membership: Great for Beginners
The path from beginner to competent cash game player isn’t necessarily complicated. It’s about commitment to steady improvement in common situations. The Run It Once Essential Membership excels at guiding players through these areas with approachable lessons with practical examples.
If you’re new to poker or just looking to sharpen your fundamentals, the Essential Membership is a low-cost, high-value way to learn. Study these lessons, put them into practice, and you’ll find your game growing more consistent and profitable over time.
