We establish a version of the Pommerenke–Levin–Yoccoz inequality for the modulus of a polynomial-like (PL) restriction of a polynomial and give two applications. First we show that if the modulus of a PL restriction of a polynomial is bounded from below then this restricts the combinatorics of the polynomial. The second application concerns parameter slices of cubic polynomials given by the non-repelling multiplier of a fixed point. Namely, the intersection of the so-called Main Cubioid and the multiplier slice lies in the closure of the principal hyperbolic domain, with possible exception of queer components.