Matt ch0ppyKay (pictured) has been on a tear as of late. Actually, he’s more or less been on a tear throughout his entire poker career. Kay signed up for PocketFives in mid-2007 and has since ascended to the very top of our Poker Player Rankings. He’s just a few in the money finishes away from scoring a $5 million cash badgeand has multiple scores of over $100,000 to his credit. Recently, he took down the Ongame $100,000 Guaranteed, which takes place on sites like bwin.

PocketFives: Thanks for joining us. Tell us about your stint at #1 in the PocketFives Rankings.

Matt Kay: I was glad to hold the top spot for 1.5 months, but it wasn’t that important to me to stay up there. I’m trying not to get ahead of myself. I’m just taking my play one day at a time.

PocketFives: The Ongame $100K win for $21,000 had to feel good even though it wasn’t a huge score. Tell us how you view that win.

Matt Kay: That was one of my best Sundays ever. Before I had even final tabled it, I had a fifth place finish in $109 Turbo 2X Chance for $5,600, a second place finish in a PartyPoker $120 Turbo for $4,600, and a second place finish in the Supersonic for $30,000. So, heading into that final table, I felt like gold. I was running very good and definitely brought my A-game, making very few errors and winning flips.

PocketFives: What are the biggest strengths and weaknesses of your game right now?

Matt Kay: My biggest strengths would probably be patience and bet sizing. I think there are a lot of errors people make right now that I’m able to avoid because of that. I’m unsure about any weaknesses at the moment. I’ve run good lately and have been trying to stay grounded to keep my hopes realistic, but I can’t think of one thing that is a major issue right now. Some days I just can’t get my head into the game and play worse as a result, so that would definitely be my biggest problem. Sundays are big enough that I’m always motivated and ready to go, though.

PocketFives: How have you developed and honed your patience and bet sizing?

Matt Kay: Playing more volume has developed both. My bet sizing has changed a lot this year and I keep making adjustments to it. Sometimes it’s based on the pot and other times it’s based on my opponents’ stacks. Sometimes it’s what I think they will call or what will induce them to raise. Other times it’s what I can risk minimally while bluffing or how I can get maximum value if I can pin them on a tight range. Patience is just years of practice. It’s always one of the tougher things for everyone, I think.

PocketFives: When is the big live poker score coming?

Matt Kay: I hope the live score will come soon. I came close a few times in 2011, but the big one still evades me. I plan to play a lot of live poker from late November to February. I’ll be at WPT Montreal, EPT/WPT Prague, the PCA, and the Aussie Millions. Until then, I’ll be playing a lot online. At this point, I’m not really expecting or hoping for a big live score. I’ll just not get ahead of myself. If it comes, great. If it doesn’t, I’m doing quite well now anyways.

PocketFives: Who was your biggest influence coming up in the game?

Matt Kay: In the past year, almost everything I learned was from myself. I talk to pokerbrat13and timex (pictured) the most for strategy, but at the same time, we have some significant differences in our games.

Way back in 2006, I was at the University of Waterloo studying Mathematics and Chartered Accountancy and I met timex there. I felt really good about my success back then, but timex had done much better. This helped motivate me and I was able to improve my tournament play a lot back then. I went on to win the Sunday Million January 2007 and had a great year. Right now, I try to keep the circle I talk to fairly small. I feel I’ll level myself if I start talking strategy to too many people.

PocketFives: You’ve started coaching, right?

Matt Kay: Yeah, I’ve recently started coaching. It’s just with one person right now and I’m just testing it out to see if it is something I want to do and if it is something I’m good at. I don’t like making training videos because it helps too many people for what I’d get paid and ends up negatively affecting my equity. However, one-on-one coaching is great because I should be able to make some big differences in that one person’s game. At the same time, I’m only giving one person the knowledge rather than several hundred or even thousands of people.