BREAKING NEWS: Boston Rob Admits to Straining Friendships on Survivor: All-Stars – ‘I Didn’t See It Through the Jury’s Eyes’.giang

Boston Rob Mariano knows he can be a cutthroat gamer.

“There’s something for playing hard,” the Survivor alum, 49, tells PEOPLE. “Like, in Survivor: All-Stars back in 2003 in Panama, I legitimately did everything that I needed to do to get to the end. I cut throats, I killed friendships and I expected them to give it to me at the end.”

Instead, the jury gave the win to Amber Brkich, who Mariano proposed to in the All-Stars live reunion show and married in April 2005.

Today, “I stand by my gameplay,” Mariano says. “But I didn’t take into account that I was going to have to be accountable at the end of it, meaning I didn’t see it through the jury’s eyes.”

Mariano says his takeaways from his aggressive All-Stars season helped him come back and win Redemption Island in 2011. “I had to learn you can’t just treat all these other people just like game pieces,” he explains. “You have to understand they’re people, they have feelings, and act accordingly.”

The father of four calls it “a balancing act” to figure out how to navigate preserving relationships with his castmates while also keeping his eyes on the prize. “And I think finding that balance really is the key to doing well in these reality competition games,” Mariano says.

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Mariano ultimately feels proud of his run on Survivor, which began with Marquesas in 2004.

“I thought I did good my first time out in Marquesas,” he says. “I didn’t ultimately win, but I understood the strategy better than the people did at the time. I feel like I understood the theory of it beyond what was even considered what should be done. Even taking Hunter [Ellis] out in the very first loss on Marquesas, people were like, ‘What are they doing? We shouldn’t get rid of Captain America.’ In the back of my mind, I’m thinking, ‘While this guy’s here, how am I supposed to win?’”

Now, Mariano will use his reality competition expertise, which also includes stints on The Amazing Race, Deal or No Deal Island and the upcoming season of The Traitors, to analyze the gameplay on Deal or No Deal Island season 2 as the host of the NBC competition program’s after show.

“There is a right and a wrong way to play the temple from a math-based point of view,” Mariano says of facing the Banker in a game of Deal or No Deal. “And that is you don’t ever put yourself in a position to take less than true odds, which at worse would be 50/50.”

When Mariano played Deal or No Deal Island in season 1, he knew this strategy, but he found himself with a target on his back due to his stacked resume of competition experience. “These games have all evolved,” Mariano acknowledges. “It’s great where everything is, and I’m really happy with my place in the history of all of it.”

As for how he fares on Traitors season 3, Mariano teases, “It’s going to be frigging awesome.”

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Deal or No Deal Island season 2 premieres with a two-hour episode on Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.