GreatSaltLuke

I can't wait for the new season and have been watching some past seasons in anticipation. The past seasons have given me some ideas on consistent strategies winners have used to survive to the end of the game and also get the votes in the end. Here are some strategies I came up with but feel free to share your own.

-Try to win the first HOH; this may be the most valuable HOH of the entire game because it will almost guarantee you that many people will approach you to form early alliances and you will have many options of who you want to fight through the game with. The first HOH is also the least likely to create resentment with nominations as you can easily use the excuse of not getting to know certain people well enough to know where they stand this early in the game (this is generally true of at least two people.)

-Who to fill out your alliance with is a tricky business. You want people that are loyal yet unlikeable, someone that is mouthy enough to piss people off but not mouthy enough to blow their alliance’s cover. You want to imagine yourself standing next to these alliance members at the end of the game and having a leg up on them in several ways, whether being humbler, more honest, more compassionate, more in control of your emotions, etc. The number of members in your alliance isn’t too important as long as you feel you have picked a group you can trust to the end.

-Do your best to keep your alliance a secret. Do not hang out with your alliance members more or less on average than anyone else in the house. If you want to talk game, do it while doing some kind of activity like cooking, playing pool, etc. Never sit around and have a conversation with your entire alliance if there is a chance of being seen.

-Talk game as little as possible to people outside of your alliance, yet also try to create deep bonds with those people. Always make yourself a shoulder to cry on, an understanding listener, and someone who’s company people enjoy. Having a showmance or deep friendship with someone outside your alliance can be very valuable but you have to be very up front about it with your alliance, ensuring that they know you are forming these bonds for future votes to benefit the alliance, which will always be the first priority. If these side friendships begin to make your alliance uncomfortable, you must start limiting contact with them.

-Make as few promises with people outside your alliance as you can. If you have to make a promise to avoid going on the block or getting voted out than the person you made the promise to becomes your prime target. Do whatever you can to subtly persuade people to put them on the block and vote them out because promises are a huge liability in this game.

-HOH Competitions- Very early or very late in the game is a good time to win HOH. Other than that it is much more of a curse than a blessing to win them unless you feel you have somehow become the target of a majority of the house. From the start of the jury until the final five or so winning HOH could spell your DOOM! However, as stated before, the first HOH competition is definitely worth winning and the final four HOH is also excellent because you will be safe and it doesn’t make any difference who you put up so you will create no enemies.

-POV Competitions- These are less risky to win than HOH but are still generally a huge burden that you should never try to win unless you are on the block, suspect you will be a replacement nom, or have an alliance member on the block. If you win this thing while not on the block, you can expect a week of intense begging, paranoia, and many chances of making enemies. The final four POV is tempting because it is the most powerful non-twist prize in the game but will almost guarantee one less jury vote so should be a last resort.

-Luxury Competitions- Only try to win these if you are playing for a group prize. Never try to win something for yourself as it will only give others ammo to use against you. Even if it’s for a group prize, you should only be an average player. Don’t be dominant enough to put a target on yourself and don’t lose enough to make people think you are throwing competitions.

It is amazing how out of touch with reality people can be and its even more magnified after being in that house for 3 months. I was shocked when I heard him say he thought he would have won.

What are you talking about? Everyone would have voted for him. Even Brendon. And then he would come back for All-stars and a bunch of HGs would probably self evict since there is no point wasting their summer when he is obviously the king of BB.

It is really scary how close Rachel was to losing no thanks to Adam, the ultimate hypocrite! If it wasn't for Shelly rising above her personal dislike of Rachel, Porsche would forever be considered a BB winner. What a travesty that would be!

Tonight Adam lost any respect I ever had for him. His hypocracy is disgusting! The only way that he is coming back for all-stars is to stick his hideous face into a bullseye so contestants can spit at it for prizes!

Too much?

I'm so happy for Rachel! She may not be the best winner of all time but I believe she had the toughest road of any BB winner! She put her heart and soul into this game and deserves every penny! And thank you Shelly for voting based on gameplay instead being a pathetic, bitter hypocrite like Adam!

actually I didn't mind Adam in the beginning, but in the last month or so I have seen a side to him that I do not like at all, he has gotten pompass, thinking Brendon will give him his vote, yeah right, and how now he is gonna manipulate the girls with some bs stuff, he just seems to have changed sooo much, and any way some ppl think floating is a way to play the game, not me, I see it as soooo lazy and I think his social aspect is phony as the day is long, nope, I made a switch to not being a fan a few weeks ago, I really would rather see porsche get 2nd then him, I would love to see him get kicked to the curb because of all his talking like he is the best playah since who knows, even saying ED would respect his game play, uh, hello, ED hates this guy,lololol

Yeah, I really haven't disliked Adam until this last week. He played a very clean game up until now, always telling the truth about the way he was voting and what side he was on even if he was switching sides a lot. Now that he is truly desperate, he is starting to play dirty and making promises that he can't back up. I don't fault him too much though because he is in a position where there are no competitions left to play and the only way he could possibly save himself now is by convincing the girls in whatever way he can to take him. If he just rolls over then he has come all this way for nothing more than the lousy stipend all the other non-vets got and that must be a hard pill to swallow.

He keeps talking to Porsche about messing with Jordan and he thinks he is really funny. He annoys me. I think he is nice but his yell and goober attitude annoy me.

Yeah what is with the annoying yell? Is he trying to be Rupert from Survivor?

Adam is hobbling around like a 90 year old man!

Jordan dindn't play a good social game. That implies that her strategy was to do nothing but make everyone like her. She is likeable by nature but she's not good at game and worse at competitions.

Unless Jordan was only pretending to be sweet and adorable I doubt that making people like her was intentional. Shelley on the other hand, had most of the house thinking she was someone completely other than she was until it all blew up in her face. If she had been able to carry that off to the end (and she did go pretty far with it), that would have been a good social game and......

...don't get me wrong here! I haven't rooted for Shelley from the start and the 'pretending to be mom' strategy never works except for people who still need a mom to say things like "you can't eat all the marshmallows from the Lucky Charms, you have to share them with the others".

To me ---------> just being yourself does NOT equal 'good social game'.

I agree. Jordan is a great human being, there is no denying that and that is why people love her and juries vote for her. But she plays a game that takes very little effort and I don't think a BB player should be rewarded $500k for putting so little effort into the game much less a million. This is really the first time Jordan has EVER been on the block after veto as a legitimate target rather than just a pawn so she has never really had to campaign for her life like Rachel has constantly. Jordan doesn't deserve this money over Rachel.

Did Jordan vote to keep Kalia out of some misguided deal between her and K long time ago or did she want Rachel to have blood on her hands? Gads! Methinks I doth see glimmers of a lightbulb in that pretty little head of hers...

Nah, I think it was just because of the deal. It didn't help her game either because Kalia was likely gonna vote for Jordan anyways and it probably pissed off Porsche which could be enough for her to vote out Jordan over Rachel if she wins veto.

Bitter sweet....so nice to see Jordan here but alas she is dragging Rachel here too

-Kyo

Obviously Rachel is dragging Jordan, not the other way around. Jordan couldn't win a "true or false my name is Jordan" competition.

I can't stand COWlia but with the way she is going and rehashing the tarot ladys predictions, if she stays in the house, she will nail this comp!

If she had any sense and wasn't so arrogant, she would go around telling everyone she didn't really pay attention to the fortunes because she knew she was going home anyways.

Let me get this straight... they are keeping Kalia now?

What is wrong with this lady? Please just go home...

Why does Kalia say she's neevr lied to anyone? I can't think of anything specific, but can someone please repeat a lie she has said in this house?

Kalia doesn't seem to lie as much as some people but she lies plenty, including several lies in the last 24 hours. For instance, last night she told Jordan she doesn't have any deals with Porsche but they made a deal a long time ago that they are taking each other to the end.

She also told Adam this morning that Rachel offered her a F2 deal. That's BS-- she offered Rachel the deal to try and save her own ass and Rachel rejected it.

I bet Adam is spending his DR sessions begging for a 24 hour quarantine.

This just in: According to Kalia, it really isn't fair that she is leaving because she has come so far and she wants to be there so bad and could really use the money. What a compelling argument! Maybe RoJo better keep her...

Maybe she will be the first HG to get boo'ed?

I want Shelly gone as much as anybody but Adam is really close to Porsche and that is really dangerous for J/R! Shelly has played both sides the whole game but Adam is only interested in one side-- the side that is winning. I believe if Kalia wins HOH he's not gonna try to win veto and take anyone off unless it is himself. His strategy is to sit back and let everyone take each other out and when either K/P or J/R take one of the others out, that's his new alliance. Is trusting Shelly really any riskier than that? Plus, she said she will swear on Josie or anyone else on her family that she won't put J/R up ever. She hasn't done that this whole game. Would she really want to shame her family like that (even more than she already has) if she isn't planning to follow through?

There will always be deranged psycopaths out there who obsess over tv shows, sports, internet media, etc. to the point where they can't separate entertainment and life. It doesn't mean there is anything wrong with what us sane people watch and discuss for our own entertainment.

OMG anyone with live feeds has to flashback to 8:18 pm tonight on Feed 3. At about the 45 second mark the camera closes in on Sheldon's face and she gives the creepiest damn look I've ever seen! I'm gonna have nightmares!

Just a thougt....they are talking about putting R and A up on the block because J can not win anything. What if...J does win takes R down. Porsh is not going to put up K. So who goes up. SHELLY.... R and J vote out Shelly. I would be so funny. BTW...I kind of want Adam to win. I know he has not won comps but he must be doing something right because he is still there.

Porsche is putting up Rachel/Jordan. Their only chance to both stay would be for Adam to win veto and pull one of them off. Not likely...

Still a Dani fan here...

Your opinion is incorrect!

Don't worry, I'm a Rachel fan so we all have our vices...

People think JJ are sitting pretty because K will never put Jordan up. Rachel said that JJ is taking care of her since B is gone so she will stick with them til F3, Adam thinks he has a F4 and F3 deal with them. Shelly has a F3 deal with them. With their army they can pick K and P off first then S/R/A will go at it and pick each other off... Therefore putting JJ in F3 no matter what.

If someone flips and put JJ on the block and JJ wins veto S/R/A depending on who is in power and who is voting to evict will never evict a J if both of them are not on the block together.

No offense but this sounds like the post of someone who doesn't follow the live feeds. Even if Kalia honored her deal to Jordan, she WILL put Jeff up if she wins HOH. Shelly's F3 deal with J/J is obviously void now on her end. Adam seems closer to Shelly than to J/J and his overriding goal is to remove physical threats and control his own destiny. Rachel will probably cut whatever deal it takes to get to the end. All the evidence says Big Jeff is in Big Trouble.

Well don't you think there is a good chance they will be split up really really soon? Jeff is the #1 target in the house. Kalia, Porsche, Shelly and even Adam might put him up Thursday. I have no illusions that Jeff is going to get much farther.

Yeah, I don't understand why everyone thinks Jeff is sitting so pretty. The only one that wants him to go much further is Jordan. Every single other person in the house has agreed that he must go sooner rather than later. Shelly is trying to team up with Dani to get him out and Adam offered loyalty to Rachel this morning to get Jeff out before turning on each other. Big Jeff is gonna have to play his ass off in comps to have a chance. He could easily be next to go after Dani.