Having played a huge, bold game that made waves throughout the season, it was always going to be a risk to allow AJ his chance to pitch to the jury why he deserved the title of Sole Survivor, and Kaelan likely knew that.
During the grand finale, after winning the Individual Immunity necklace one last time, Kaelan had a difficult decision to make which drove him to tears. Voting out AJ, and deciding to take Myles to the final Tribal Council was clearly a difficult decision, but one professional poker player and game enthusiast AJ agrees with.
“Kaelan did have a lot of final two deals with a lot of people but the difference with everyone else and with me was that Kaelan gave me all the information,” AJ told 10 Play. “I’m not going to believe someone just because they tell me we’re going to the final two, but Kaelan’s actions backed that up.
“Kaelan and I bonded over everything, we spent the most time together and, when it came down to it, his vote always went where I wanted it to go… it wasn’t until the last second that Kaelan decided he was going to take Myles, and I don’t blame him because $500,000 is a lot of money and if he thinks it’s going to give him a better chance of winning he’s going to take it.
“He knew what the right decision was and I think it really hurt him to make, but he made it and good for him. I’m a game player, I back him for that,” AJ said.
But being a game player, AJ also knew that he wouldn’t go easy on both Myles and Kaelan during the final tribal. It also didn’t help that he barely had any time between his own torch being snuffed, and sitting on the jury in the final tribal.
“I did not get to decompress, that’s for sure. You’re still in game mode, but all that paranoia, pressure, and stress is gone and you’re only left with the love for the people you’ve spent all this time with,” AJ admitted.
Calling it the ‘ultimate game’, AJ had no idea what his approach to playing would be until he hit the beach and began to size up his fellow competitors.
“I think going into Survivor, the only thing I knew about the game that I wanted to play was that I wanted it to be unique,” he explained.
A master strategist, after hanging back for a few days AJ began his campaign of mischief, chaos, hostages, and throwing challenges. It was a controversial approach that even led to a stalemate where both tribes appeared to be throwing the same challenge. But throwing was also part of AJ’s strategy after the merge.
“I was throwing as many challenges as I could,” he laughed. “It’s so logical and I’m so shocked it doesn’t happen more, but I’m a social player and if I ever thought I was not in danger – and I got very lucky because I wasn’t in danger a lot – I knew I could throw the challenge.
“What’s the point in me winning? If I win or get close to winning, people will start worrying about me, and they’re already worried about me strategically and socially. If I added physically to that, it would start to look really bad for me and I’d become too big of a threat.”
On top of that, AJ’s tight relationship with record-breaking challenge beast Kaelan meant that he often didn’t have to worry about where the necklace would be hanging. “It’s one less person I have to worry about, I’m not in danger, I’ve reduced my threat level and people might want to take me to the end because they think they can beat me. And then I’ve got this ace up my sleeve where I can go bananas in the end.”
Admittedly, AJ thinks his reliance on Kaelan’s impressive run in challenges was also one of his biggest downfalls. “I ended up getting so complacent I didn’t care about winning the final challenge,” he added.
“In the end, I went all in on Kaelan and sometimes you go all in and win, and sometimes you lose. And that was one that I lost.”
A professional poker player is often another reason players are targeted early in the game, their aptitude for strategy and deception paints a huge target on their backs, but AJ says he never hid his love of poker. Telling people he owned a development company – which is true – AJ downplayed his poker career as more of a hobby, which many others on the beach shared.
“Where poker helped was being able to take the losses,” AJ said. When something doesn’t go your way in poker you can’t throw a tantrum or let your emotions overtake you or you’ll likely play worse.
“What really helped me in Survivor was anytime something didn’t go my way I knew to smile and congratulate the person who made the amazing move that was better than whatever I had planned,” he continued.
“Poker really helps you stay grounded and it helps you compartmentalise the losses because Survivor is 47 days, and you can’t win every vote,” AJ explained. “You can’t have everything go your way, and when something doesn’t go your way I think poker was a really good thing to fall back on because I had already trained myself to accept those losses with a smile.”
Despite being a major player this season, AJ was rarely in the firing line of votes, something he chalked up to his grasp on his social game.
“What you see on TV is generally the scramble, but for the other hours of the day you’re being a human, being yourself and being social,” he explained. “Making big moves can put you in hot water but if your relationships with other people are strong enough and you genuinely bond with people out there… you just need to communicate.
“Sometimes when these big moves would happen people would be really upset with me because they’d feel like I let them down or like I betrayed them… I would just take their fears and their worries onboard and I would communicate how I felt,” he continued. “At the end of it, we’d have such a great, productive conversation that people understood my logic and I understood theirs. Then we’re on the same page.”
And if people didn’t end up on the same page, AJ would make a note of it and they’d be his next target. “They’re the people that would eventually start to get steam against me,” he laughed.
“The main thing is - when you do play a big game, you have to have the social capital to make the moves, and you have to be aware enough that you have hurt people in making those moves… I just didn’t want to hurt anyone out there.”
His social game also flourished with the help of the Graduates alliance which evolved into the Postgraduates made up of Myles, Kaelan and Zara. The fearsome four ruled the endgame, only picking each other off at the very end when they had no other option.
“I could not have played my game without Zara,” AJ added. “Zara was so important and so integral to my game and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she went home at four and I went home at three. Zara was so amazing out there and played such a phenomenal game.”
After such a brilliant season, AJ said returning to the game would mean a completely new approach, so long as his circumstances in life allowed him to take on the challenge.
“Third place is fun and lovely but the only person that can play the best game is the person who wins. If you don’t win Survivor, did you play?” AJ laughed.
“I want to win this game so bad! When you get voted out it’s soul-crushing. It’s like poker, if you lose a big hand you have to give everybody a hug and a high-five and congratulations, but I want to be the one being congratulated!
“I want my revenge!”
