Warning: This article contains spoilers for season two of The Traitors Ireland.

The game is getting into its final days. RTÉ RTÉ

WE’RE QUICKLY APPROACHING the endgame of season two of The Traitors Ireland.

With just three episodes left to go, traitors and faithfuls alike will be trying to plot how to stay in the game and make it to the end to get their hands on the prize pot. 

The Traitors is a game of strategy, and everyone comes to it with a different idea of how it should be played – including ourselves watching from home.

We asked our readers to share what their strategy would be at this point in the game. Everyone who wrote into us had a different approach.

As a traitor, should you betray your co-conspirator, or try to ally with them until the end? With only a couple of chances left to banish or murder, who should be on the chopping block?

Here are some of our readers’ ideas for how they’d win The Traitors.

Carla and Pauric at the traitors' conclave in the latest episode. RTÉ RTÉ

The latest episode left off with a decision for Carla and Pauric. They need to choose a player who will be gifted a dagger that gives them the power of having two votes around the roundtable. They can give it to one of themselves (and risk drawing suspicion), or bestow it upon a faithful (but leave themselves at the mercy of that faithful’s voting choice). 

Our reader Conor said that he would give the dagger to Diego.

“I think that would put the spotlight back on him and they’d get enough votes from the rest of the round table for him to be killed off,” Conor said, adding that other players will recall the suspicion that has lingered over Diego since the challenge in which he secretly bought a shield with money from the prize pot.

Conor reckons that Carla needs to turn on Pauric O to have a chance of securing the win for herself.

“This could be bold but I think Carla needs to subtly say to Pete and Anna that she thinks Pauric O is a traitor,” Conor said. “If they turn on him, that could bring enough heat on him to get him booted off.”

After that, he thinks Carla’s pick for a late-game recruitment should be Ian. “Literally nobody thinks he’s a traitor.”

Diego would be our reader Conor's pick for who to give the dagger to. RTÉ RTÉ

Patricia has thought through what she believes the best strategies would be for both Carla and Pauric, as well as sharing with us how she would play it if she herself was a traitor in the game.

Both Carla and Pauric should be trying to get the dagger for themselves, Patricia thinks, and use it to get out their fellow traitor.

“Carla is at a critical point in her game plan,” Patricia said. “She’s a strong Traitor and should insist on the dagger and vote for Pauric. She still has enough credibility from her opponents to sway many of them to vote for him too.”

Pauric was once a strong traitor, Patricia said, but could still come under heat yet over Janet’s (rightful) accusation of him murdering her in plain sight. “He still has credibility, but votes could be easily gathered,” Patricia said. “He should insist on the dagger to save himself and throw Carla under the bus.”

If Patricia herself was in there as a traitor, she would make a plan with Pauric to get to the end together by giving the dagger to Anna and try to sway the next roundtable vote to banish Pete – and then take out Anna. Next on her list would be Kayleigh and Diego, and then finally Ian, who suspects Pauric the least.

“If I was a faithful, I’d be voting for Pauric,” Patricia said. “Janet’s situation was glaringly obvious (to the average armchair faithful!). It’s impossible to ignore obvious clues (from my very comfy and Faithful armchair!).”

Patricia can't believe the faithfuls aren't more suspicious of Pauric over Janet being murdered in plain sight. RTÉ RTÉ

Another reader, D, said that both traitors should have Pete firmly in their line of sight for eliminating from the game due to the sway he holds over the opinions of other players.

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“If Pete is gone they can work on the others. Pauric has already made a pact with Ian to split the money if they are both left, so Carla should get an ally from the Faithfuls – either Anna or Kayleigh or both to align with,” D said.

D expects that Pauric will try to get Carla banished at the next roundtable, so Carla should remind the others about Janet accusing Pauric of murdering her. “Depending on the outcome of this, either Carla or Pauric are likely to go next,” D said.

Looking at the other players, D said that Kayleigh “seems to be realising some of what is bubbling underneath and is playing the game well”, while Diego is “under the radar and is playing the game well and could come out on top if he keeps going”.

“If Pauric and Carla shoot themselves in the foot by trying to get each other voted out, this could lead to Kayleigh and Diego aligning and winning the pot in the end.”

D reckons that Pete should be eliminated next, and that Diego and Kayleigh are in with a chance of winning as faithfuls. RTÉ RTÉ

Our reader Carla (different Carla!) said that if she was Pauric, she’d give the dagger to Ian and encourage him to vote to banish Carla at the roundtable, and then recruit Ian after Carla was banished. Then it would be a case of Pauric and Ian trying to divert suspicion to someone else in the final so that the two of them could win together as traitors.

Looking at the mechanics of the game, Ashley said that The Traitors is great for drama, but that when it gets down to the final seven or so players, it “becomes more obvious who traitors are” and “the show can suffer with blatant unfair tactics from faithfuls just as bad as traitors”.

“This season it’s fairly clear Pauric and Carla are well suspected now, yet a close (and smart) two/three faithful group will know they can team up secretly and dumb vote together to try and sacrifice other faithfuls on purpose and break out the pretend crying to keep traitors happy and wait for the end to pounce,” Ashley said.

“A smart, selfish traitor tactic would be to rat out your fellow traitor to try and team up at the last second with a strong faithful to betray all for a bad guy win.”

Ashley added that even with the game’s flaws, “you still want to watch, hoping for that mad final twist”.

There’s not long left to wait now until we see exactly how it plays out.