(Image credits: CBS on the left, and PokerGO on the right)
Jean-Robert Bellande is a professional poker player known for his aggressiveness both on and off the felt.
In 2005, he already gained publicity in the poker circuit, but this later flared up when he joined the reality TV show Survivor: China in 2007.
If you’ve been a fan, and it has been 15 years since the show aired, this question probably popped up in your mind at some point: “Where is Jean Robert from Survivor now?”
What is he up to these days? Is he still actively pursuing poker? How was his life after the CBS’ reality show?
Let’s find out.
Table of Contents
Quick Contestant Profile
Before anything else, let’s first talk about who our guy is.
Jean-Robert Bellande, also known as “Action Bobby” in poker circles, was born in Long Island, New York on September 17, 1970.
His parents are French-speaking immigrants from Haiti. Later, the family moved to Taiwan and spent more than a decade there before going back to the United States.
JRB has a degree in Marketing from Azusa Pacific University. After finishing his post-secondary education, he was a club promoter and eventually ran his own place known as Sky Sushi, which closed down 5 years later.
Bobby is fluent in three languages – French (his parents were French-speaking), English, and Mandarin (which he had to learn this when they moved to Taiwan).
Before joining Survivor TV show, JRB was already a professional poker player who participated in televised tournaments, and in 2005 he was even ranked as high as the Number 6 Card Player in the world.
Currently he resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. Check out his biography in this post.
Jean-Robert Bellande on Survivor
Survivor is CBS’s reality TV show that gathers players from all over the world to participate in various challenges throughout the entire season.
JRB was one of the 16 contestants who joined in the 15th season of this program, which took place in China and was aired on September 2007.
The players were divided into two groups (called tribes) – Fei Long (Flying Dragon) and Zhan Hu (Fighting Tiger). Action Bobby became part of the Fei Long tribe along with Todd Herzog who became the winner for this season.
During the earlier parts of the show, it was evident that JRB wasn’t a crowd favorite. He got into several arguments with other members of the Fei Long tribe and started off on the wrong foot with Todd Herzog.
Jean-Robert displayed a rather lazy attitude at camp, but later revealed that this was all part of his strategy. Also, he was often called out by others because he had a habit of cuddling with female tribe members at night.
On the 24th day, he was the 9th person to get voted out.
Fun fact:
JRB is not the only “Survivor” poker player. Garrett Adelstein, Anna Khait, Ronnie Bardah, and Fatima Moreira de Melo also participated in this reality TV show.
JRB’s Life After Survivor TV Show
So, after that 2007 reality TV show, what did JRB do? Where is he now, and what is he up to these days?
Right now, “Action Bobby” is residing in Las Vegas with his wife Veronica Llamas, and their twin kids.
He was playing poker before he joined the show, and he’s still very much active after he left Survivor.
His latest tournament win was in June 2022 during the 53rd WSOP at the $10,000 Mixed Games – Dealer’s Choice Championship. At this event, Bobby was able to bag a prize of $16,264 after placing 16th.
But before this most recent achievement, he was able to rake up some winnings from 2007 to 2022. In fact, he was so close to getting a WSOP bracelet in 2008. But, he finished 2nd to Matt Graham during the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout game. There, he was able to take home $173,564.
In 2015, Jean Robert got one of his best cashes after winning $784,828 at the WSOP $50,000 Player’s Championship event. A few years later, he was finally able to win his first-ever gold bracelet at the 2018 WSOP event #58.
These tournaments likely have helped him because it seems like he finally was able to surpass the “broke living” phase that he was known for during his early poker career.
Nowadays, JRB has a quite high net worth and plays very high stakes games in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. You can watch him on televised PokerGO shows, Hustler Casino Live, and Live at the Bike streams.
Check out the video he was playing with Alan Keating, Stanley Tang, J.R, Wesley and Mikki for 16 hours straight and made over $800,000 in one session alone!
That’s pretty unbelievable even for high stakes poker games.
Read this post on how does Jean-Robert Bellande make money (with his sources of wealth revealed).
Final Thoughts
Despite being dubbed as an unlucky poker player, Jean-Robert made a name for himself not only within the industry, but also as a Survivor contestant.
Even after the TV series ended, he was happily pursuing his career in poker, and made a family of his own several years later.
And I guess we can all see how this Survivor poker player is living his best life after the show.
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