By John Kiesewetter
The Cincinnati Enquirer

How did 22-year-old swimwear model Jenna Morasca outwit, outplay and outlast everyone on Survivor: The Amazon last spring? She shares her $1 million strategy:

• Accept your role: "Play on the weakness of what people think you have. People just naturally assumed that Heidi (Strobel) and I were stupid and weak, and if you spend the whole time disproving that, you're going to hurt yourself."

• Take what is given: "(Others) assumed that we weren't that smart, so they told us a lot more than they should have. They're telling us their 'boot' (vote out) lists, and we're just laughing hysterically (later)."

• Don't be a leader: "If you're on the top rung of the ladder, the only place you can go is get drop-kicked to the bottom. If you're on the second or third rung, you're all right."

• Instigate by suggestion: "If everybody is talking about voting somebody off, and you're hollering, ... then you're the one who sticks out in everybody's minds as making all the decisions. If you just say, 'I think we should vote out Jean,' and walk away, it gets into people's heads, but you're not the messenger. They always say: 'Don't shoot the messenger.' In this game, they shoot the messenger."

• Stay focused: "Keep your pride and your personality in check. You're not going to die in 39 days. Hold it together. It's very easy to get distracted."

• Brains over brawn: "Look at the final two: I was probably the weakest of the entire group (of 16), versus the strongest of the whole group (Matthew Von Ertfelda). It has nothing to do with physical strength."

• Nice not necessary: "I don't consider it negative to be the bitch. I was there to play to win $1 million, and if you got in my way, I was going to take you out. You can't be nice in that game."

E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com