Watching Survivor

On the interview circuit, the Professional Poker player, Jean-Robert Bellande is proving himself to be quite genuine… genuinely delusional, that is! Most of the after show interviews have insights of thought processes, some (or a good deal of) revisionist history, and honest takes on the other players with possibly a couple left field moments.

Jean-Robert lives in left field.

Last week we all watched and (not so) quietly snickered when Jaime played the fake Hidden Immunity Idol, only to this week have Jean-Robert blindsided by the thought that there really is one out there! Then, to win the reward and get all five clues at once and figure out where it should be that very night? Well, it’s clear why he was thought of as “the smart one”.

I know, I couldn’t write it with a straight face - I don’t expect you to read it with one, either.

He was a man in love with his strategy:

Reality TV World: So you’re saying the playing the role of the “local jerk” part of your strategy was over and you were now starting to focus on assuring you had jury votes if you made it to the Final 3?

Jean-Robert: It wasn’t over, it was just a process. You can’t go from being a jerk to being an angel overnight. It’s a process thing we’re all of a sudden now I’m kicking in a lot more at camp, helping build the fires, I’m cooking, doing whatever…

Reality TV World: Were you confident that process would have eventually taken shape and you would have had the jury votes if you made it to the Final 3?

Jean-Robert: I loved my strategy. I loved my strategy. And when I got to the Final 3, and I was presenting my strategy — this was all part of the plan, you know, me being the lazy jerk at the beginning, and you can see me kick in — I think I would have gotten a lot of respect from the jurors and you’d of seen me get votes from people you’d never expect.

And he was a man who was far behind the rest of the players:

Reality TV World: After you read the final Hidden Immunity Idol clue during last night’s reward, you commented how you were shaken-up that you weren’t aware there was a Hidden Immunity Idol out there. Why didn’t you ever think there would be a Hidden Immunity Idol?

Jean-Robert: I had NO CLUE whatsoever that there was a Hidden Immunity Idol in this game. Each season… You know, they had Exile Island, this game we had [kidnapping]. Normally, I’m going to receive some sort of clue — some sort of information — it just was never presented to me.

As far as I’m concerned there isn’t one. I’m not saying there isn’t one, but it’s just like if I don’t know about, there isn’t one as far as I’m concerned. I never had one clue. And you see what happens! Those guys had those clues for who knows how many days and it took them like four or five days — maybe a week — to figure out where this thing was. For me, I got the clues and I was right there within hours! As soon as we got home that night [from the Reward Challenge], you see me digging around and figuring out it was up there in that pagoda, taking off the plaques. The plaques that I had were like the faux idols, but it’s like I’m right there.

Right away in the morning I have that conversation with [Erik Huffman] where I’m fishing around, saying, “Hey, I think I got the idol.” Obviously I didn’t really believe I had the idols — I was just bluffing — but I wanted to get information from him, which I got.

This is part of the thing that freaked Todd out. He’s like, “This guy went from not even knowing there was a Hidden Immunity Idol to coming up with a plan to blind-side James and get rid of him. That’s some scary stuff!” That freaked Todd out, and Todd decided, “Hey, we better get rid of Jean-Robert.”

But Todd organizing this move against me, yeah, he perceived me correctly as a serious threat in the game. But at that moment, James is a bigger threat than I am and it’s actually a big mistake on his part.

Oh, Jean-Robert.

Now, I know we have the advantage of seeing things from outside the game, without the starvation and the rain and the cold and other hardships, but you’d think that maybe, just maybe, he’d see that he was well and thoroughly PLAYED in this game. In the bit above, for instance. He had no clue because he hadn’t received one. Brilliant! And he was there within hours after having received the clues - but he forgets, he got ALL FIVE CLUES at once. Sure he found them right away - after searching all night! The fact that the others already had them, and found them with just three clues while poking around in plain sight, well that was just luck, right Jean-Robert?

After all, he’s “the smart one”:

Reality TV World: When you learned James had the Hidden Immunity Idols, you confronted him about it. What did you hope to get out of that confrontation?

Jean-Robert: A couple things. I wanted him to know that, “Listen man. You knew all along that I was going to figure things out.” He had me pegged as the smarter guy in the group. He keeps referring to me as, “Jean-Robert dumb. Jean-Robert whatever.” But part of that is because he knew that I was like the smart one. I was going to figure things out.

Part of it was, “Listen. I’m hip to what’s going on. James, you going to bring me in on this? You’ve been holding me out of the loop — and yeah, I’m a little disappointed that you haven’t included me — but where are we going from here? Are we the [Final 2] or aren’t we?”

Really… I’m not worried if he’s going to go with me or not because at this point I’m thinking he’s the biggest threat. If he denies this in any way, shape or form, now that gives me the justification in my heart to go ahead and blind-side him.

Oh, Jean-Robert.

You can find other interviews, with more of the same, here and here. He does plan to lobby hard against Todd for betraying him if he makes it to the final two, as he’d threatened last week. Because he’s so well liked, and such a great study of people, I’m sure he can convince them to do his bidding. After all, that was his strategy - and he loves his strategy!

That’s his story, and by gosh, he’s sticking to it! In the meantime, he’s playing $1 Million tournaments… and cashing out at $20k.

Hrm, maybe it’s time to think about a new strategy…