In this week’s Australian Survivor Talking Tribal, the OG snake and All Star player Nick Iadanza broke down exactly what’s happening in a split vote and what it can tell you about where you stand within a tribe.

You may have heard the term bandied around camp quite a lot. Put simply, a split vote is a strategy where an alliance will pre-plan to cast a near-equal number of votes on two targets as a contingency plan in case a hidden Immunity Idol is played.

The strategy has now become a bit of a favourite move for many and we saw it expertly deployed when master strategist Hayley aligned herself with Dani to give Simon the almighty boot.

With Simon holding two idols, there was a huge risk that he could play one at any time, but lucky for Dani the other person on the chopping block was Flick, who she was happy to lose if that’s how the votes fell.

But Hayley decided to undermine Dani’s power move and split the vote so that, if Simon were to play one of his idols, it would be his number two whose torch would be snuffed that night.

Making a mini-move while one of the best blindsides was in motion was bold, but as we’ve already seen time and time again, Hayley seems to be one step ahead of pretty much everyone.

In Talking Tribal, Nick explained how a split vote not only can prevent a vote from backfiring, but it can also display where in the pecking order you fall.

“When a split vote is being decided it’s usually one person who’s deciding, okay these four people vote that name and these three people vote that name. When you are trying to figure out your place in the tribe, take note of which group you’re in,” he said.

“If you are placed in the group that has the majority of the numbers, you’re the person that the tribe can rely on. You’re the person who the tribe doesn’t think is going to flip their vote...you are the solid number.

“If they don’t trust you, you’ll be put as the back-up vote because, even if you do decide to do something tricky, it’s never going to actually have a difference… But if you’re not trusted and you don’t get to make the decision, big red flag. Your tribe doesn’t trust you.”

Check out the latest episode of Australian Survivor: Talking Tribal above for more chat about the week’s huge moves including an interview with Simon and both his idols following his blindside.

We cannot wait to see what happens when Brawn heads back to camp after Tuesday’s absolutely epic Tribal Council.

Don’t miss new episodes of Australian Survivor: Brains V Brawn on Sunday – Tuesday at 7:30pm on 10 and 10 play on demand.

Plus, see what Luke Toki and Nathan Morris have to say about the strategy on 10 play’s web series, Australian Survivor Talking Tribal.