Interviewing Jean-Robert was a little harder than I expected. He put so much of his personality out there when he played Survivor: China, that there really weren’t any burning questions that I needed answered since I felt his gameplan was quite clear. I still found most of his answers to be quite interesting as well as how open he was about not knowing anything about the hidden immunity idol before Jaime attempted to use it.
Murtz Jaffer: Hey man, how are you?
Jean-Robert Bellande: I am good. I’d be doing a little better if I was still in the running for that million.
MJ: I want to get right into it. You seemed to definitely go in there with a plan and there was obviously a lot of pressure on you since everyone expected you to be the game’s mastermind because of your poker background. Was there more pressure on you compared to everybody else (because of your poker background)?
JRB: Absolutely. The people over in casting thought I was insane to think about presenting myself as a card pro going in there because they thought I would get picked off right away. And I actually considered going in as a youth pastor or going in as nightclub promoter or some other career but then you got play up against ‘hey what if somebody recognizes me out there’ and pinpoints me as a liar right off the bat and then for sure I am going to be going home. I was still considering the idea (pre-game) but when we got out on the set, I felt like I was recognized. I was right and so the best move for me was just to go ahead and just say ‘hey, I am a poker player.’ Try and present myself as a not-so-successful poker player so that they didn’t feel like ‘hey, this guy doesn’t really need the money’ and that was definitely a hurdle that I was going to have to jump more than the average person out there.
MJ: Is that why you came up with this whole strategy of appearing lazy while focusing on the challenges? Just because you had to present something to the poker fans who were expecting you to come up with some crazy poker plan?
JRB: Right. Right. The plan was to be kind of a lazy jerk initially. And then become a little bit more likeable as we went but I was always going to kick butt in the challenges and part of that was going to help me from being sent home. If I was a lazy jerk and I sucked at the challenges, well they probably would have sent me home right away. As long as we’re winning the challenges, first of all, then you’re not really on the chopping block. And then I was about to kick in the phase two of my plan which was to become a little more likeable. In fact you were seeing a little bit more of that. You started to see me get a little more likeable and appreciate it when I started speaking Chinese to the folks that came out there and being as helpful as possible. You know you saw me kick it in a little more in camp life doing the fishing and cooking. Even with Courtney who was my nemesis out there, I mean this girl, she was constantly bad-mouthing me. I really didn’t have too much to say about her (I probably had stuff to say but I kind of bit my lip on it). In the last episode, I hadn’t said a word to her in nine days and then when she won that challenge, I kind of was like ‘hey Courtney, you know you did a good job there… congratulations.’ I think that went a long way with her and if you noticed, she wasn’t even the one lobbying to get rid of me this last episode. She was kind of like ‘yeah, I’ll vote for whoever.’
MJ: I have to ask you about Todd. On the very first episode, you seemed to be able to read him and figure out that he was the best player. If that was the case, why didn’t you try to get rid of him and instead ally with him? Was it just a case of trying to keep your enemies closer?
JRB: Well, basically I wanted him to know that I felt that he was the clever one and he knew what was up and I was on to him and just basically say ‘listen, you stay out of my way, I stay out of your way.’ I didn’t want to offer an alliance with him just at that stage in the game because you know we had just begun and I still wanted to get a feel for everything that was going on out there but I just kind of wanted to let him know ‘hey, you know what? Be careful because if you come at me, I am going to come at you and it’s in both of our best interests to leave each other alone.’
MJ: There was a scene a couple of weeks ago, where you told him that if he backstabbed you, you would make sure that he didn’t win the money. Were you being serious? I would think that a poker player like you would respect the game that he is playing and the strategy.
JRB: I absolutely would respect anybody’s game that they are playing. You gotta be making the right moves. Whenever you play any game, like when I am playing chess, poker, pool… everytime you make a move, you have to assume that everybody around you is making the optimal move for themselves. At this point in the game, James is the biggest threat. I mean this guy is likeable. If he makes it to the final two or final three, he’s going to get the votes. He’s favored to win every immunity challenge from here on out and he’s got not just one, but two hidden immunity idols. The right move was to get rid of James now. We actually got him to show up at tribal council without even bringing his bag. He couldn’t have played the idols if he wanted to. Sending him home was the optimal move. Not just for me but for everybody. Todd making the move to have me axed, it was a mistake.
MJ: James seemed to be your closest ally. Why did your relationship seem to disintegrate? What happened there (because I thought he was one of your best friends).
JRB: Oh, he was and we got along really well. Basically, I just wanted in on the hidden immunity idol. That obviously created just a small rift in our relationship but I am not mad at him for not sharing that with me. I wouldn’t share it with him if I had the idol. And I think that Todd was crazy to share it with James in the first place. Another mistake that I think he made. I didn’t pinpoint Todd as being the best player in the game. I pinpointed him as being the clever one, the devious one.
MJ: You made some pretty hilarious comments out there including the one where you told Frosti that you would like to be sharing Amanda and Courtney’s hottub. Were you just kidding around? Was that just game? Because I thought it was pretty funny when you said that.
JRB: Yeah, you know we were having fun out there. Women out there may be cute or might not be cute or whatever. When you’re out there, you’re thinking ‘fully survive.’ You’re thinking ‘I want to be warm at night.’ I’ll be out there snuggling up with a guy, with a girl, with a gay guy. It doesn’t matter. You gotta make it to tomorrow and then even if a woman is hot, you’re not seeing her as hot. You’re seeing this person that smells next to you. That hasn’t shaved forever. You’re in conditions where somebody might have been using the restroom for diarrhea all night long. I mean this is not the place to be drawn to somebody. I am having fun out there. The two of them in the tub right there? That was actually funny! Yeah, sure. Point it out. Frosti, what’s up?!
MJ: I think that one of the most pivotal scenes this season is when Erik told you that James had one of the idols. Were you really the one who figured out that James probably had two and how much did this affect your strategy?
JRB: I definitely threw a bluff Erik’s way when I told him that I believed I had the idols. I mean that was the only purpose for me sharing that information with him was just to go fishing. And I got plenty of information. When he told me about the idol, I was able to figure out with him that James probably indeed had both of them and how it made sense that wherever the idol was found here on our camp was probably in a similar spot on the other camp and James had the opportunity to find both of them. That immediately put me into a ‘okay, well shoot, now James is by far the biggest threat.’ I already thought he was going to be a big threat because of his being favored to win the challenges from here on out, but now he’s got not one but two hidden immunity idols! We no longer have any opportunity to miss. We gotta send him home right now and you saw Todd was a little worried when he saw that I went from not even knowing about the hidden immunity idol to already throwing up a plan to send James home. That made Todd a little nervous. He was like ‘hey, this Jean-Robert is playing the game… maybe he’s the biggest threat, let’s get rid of him’ but I wasn’t the biggest threat. I could not have been the biggest threat compared to James at this point.
MJ: And my last question is about your reaction when Jaime played the fake idol last week. I guess at that point you didn’t know anything about it. Apparently everybody was laughing at your reaction to her playing it… not the fact that she played a fake idol.
JRB: And they could laugh at my reaction because I was completely clueless! When Jaime presented that, you noticed the look on my face there, that was before the votes because I knew that being the jerk, I am always going to get the second-most amount of votes. If that’s the real idol, I am going home. I was worried to death but it also kicked me into gear and I said ‘hey, you know what? There is a hidden immunity idol in this game.’ I could tell by Jeff’s reaction to it that this is not it. I could tell that there was indeed one out there. I went from there to the next tribal council knowing who had ’em and came up with a play.
MJ: What’s next for you and how does Survivor compare to poker?
JRB: There’s a lot of poker in Survivor. One of the things that I do at a poker table is that I assess my opponents. I kind of don’t make any moves for the first hour or two when I get to a poker table, just kind of figuring out who the strong players are and who the weak ones are. Who I want to mess with and who I want to stay away from. I did the same thing when I got out there. I think that poker translates over into life in a lot of ways but in Survivor especially. I mean it’s a social game and some of the things that I learned on Survivor, I’ll be taking to my poker game. One of the things that I learned out there is being really really patient. I mean right now I feel like my poker game is the best it has ever been.
MJ: Thank you so much Jean-Robert.
Born in Long Island, N.Y., Jean-Robert Bellande considers himself international as he is the son of French-speaking Haitian immigrants that raised him in Asia. Bellande is a professional poker player (his televised tournaments include the 2005 Rio Circuit Event, 2005 U.S. Poker Championship, Ballbreakers 2005 and the 2005 World Poker Tournament’s “Bad Boys of Poker”). In 2005, he was ranked as high as the Number 6 Card Player in the world.
Bellande first made a name for himself promoting some of Los Angeles’ hottest nightclubs including the Roxbury, Tatou of Beverly Hills and the Gate. He then opened up his own Hollywood night spot, Sky Sushi, which he ran for five years. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Azusa Pacific University. He describes himself as charismatic, fun and loud. He is most proud of making it to the final table at the World Series Of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Event where he pocketed a whopping $210,000, and has now pocketed over $700,000 in tournament winnings. Bellande’s hobbies are playing poker, playing pool and hitting the nightclubs. His favorite sport is soccer. He enjoys playing tennis and basketball. If he could take three non-survival items with him to location, he’d bring a deck of cards, poker chips and a dealer!
Bellande currently resides in Las Vegas. His birth date is Sept. 17, 1970.
– Survivor: China airs on CBS on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
– Survivor: China airs on the Global network in Canada on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Sir Linksalot: Survivor: China
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