It’s time to revisit the last “Test of Your Game” and see how the commenters responded to the challenge. How would you handle an outdoor pickup attempt under the gaze of a beautiful setting sun over the ocean, briefly interrupted by a potential cockblock?
Anonymous wrote:
FIRST!!!!! :))))
I like the assumed sale. But the excitability sounds too eager.
Grade: E for effort
The G Manifesto wrote:
“The Pacific sun glared off the sand”
Being that you are on The Wessyde, spark up a Chronic jay and say:
“Stick around for a while, you don’t want to miss the sunset. It is going to be a “green flash”.
To which she will respond:
“What is a “green flash?”
Maneuver as usual from there. Final destination: your bedroom.
An excellent segue, if she isn’t a local. Actually, this is a decent topic even if she knows what you’re talking about. If she says “I’ve seen it already”, you could say “Yeah, but not with my color commentary.”
Grade: B+
DiamondEyes wrote:
“Does David know you try to pick up strange men at the beach?”
whatever she says, cut her off with –
“Your friend is kind of cute.”
There is no need to mention David at all. That’s taking the focus off you and putting it on some other dude. We don’t know if David is a BF, an ex, a herbly friend, a brother, a roommate or none of the above. Plus, this abrupt conversational change doesn’t flow well from her last words to you as she was packing to go. As for the driving arrangements hinted at by the girl friend, well, it could be a girls’ night out, so no boyfriend presence required. Otherwise, I like the flirty nature and the disqualification of this segue, and a girl who was feeling you might pick up and run with this.
Grade: Gentleman’s C
Miley Cyrax wrote:
Hesitate like a deer in the headlights, until the sight of her walking away spurs you into action. Yell “wait!,” while getting up to chase after her, before tripping over your beach chair and falling on your face.
She turns around.
Trying to DHV as you pick yourself up (flexing the triceps as you push yourself off the ground), you sheepishly ask “has anyone told you that you have a C-shaped smile?”
Neil Strauss wept.
Grade: A+ for slapstick humor
E wrote:
“How long have you and her been dating?”, completely straight faced.
Assuming she’s not actually dating that girl, she’ll probably start qualifying. If she is dating that girl, you can ask if they’ve ever shared a man.
Man, this is an ingenious neg/disqualification. But for it to work you have to say it with sincere naïveté. Any smirking will convince her you’re a douchebag. This is a line that could function in any situation where a cockblock is present.
Grade: B for balls
Marc wrote:
Flirt with the pale girl, says I. Make magazine girl, who probably already thinks she’s the shit, wonder if you might actually like her friend better. Plus y’know, if you’re in with her group, it’s less awkward to try to get her to peel away.
It’s always advisable to flirt with other girls (an alpha male is always “on”), but if you aren’t ambiguous about your intentions, or you overdo it, she might really think you want her less attractive friend and try to set you two up. But I get that this is a classic disqualification maneuver used on hot babes to make them doubt your attraction for them, and thus to slightly lower their status relative to yours. I’m just not sure that the “I like your friend” red herring tactic won’t backfire as often as it works as intended.
Grade: C-
Anonymous wrote:
A classic close I learned from this blog:
Double middle finger in the face of all. Stunner. Stunner. Stunner.
Walk away to the sound of breaking glass.
Bonus: and whistling the “Battle Hymm of the Republic.”
Double Bonus: steal her wallet. spend her money at the strip club.
Are some of you guys looking to pick up chicks or audition for the new Game movie?
Grade: Hell yeah!
Marx wrote:
As the perceptive charmer different from the rest of the pack, I can smell the moisture tingling her ‘gina. She *wants* to be late; she *wants* to dismiss David; and she *wants* to showcase her sass (and ass).
Response: eradicate that sense of urgency, prolong her stay at the beach, keep teasing, get her to jump in the water, and take the rest from there.
Me: “So you came to the beach to read a magazine? Come on… you’re more fun than that.”
Magazine girl: “No, I was tanning too. But I gotta go now.”
Me: “Yeah, I noticed the tan lines. Seriously, what’s the urgency for? Beautiful day, beautiful sand, beautiful sharks.”
M-G: “I gotta get ready for that dinner.”
Me: “Do you also have trouble telling time? You have hours before dinner. Come on. Do you know how to swim?”
M-G: “Yes.”
Me: “I don’t believe you. Show me.”
M-G: “…..”
**More witty banter to expunge that urge to leave**
Me: “I’m jumping in. Tag along.”
**I grab her gently by the hand and pull her into the water**
Commenter Ben Runkle had a good reply to this commenter’s suggestion, so I’ll just post that:
“I like this because it seems like you’re going for the same day lay, by keeping her around and moving to another spot (the water). That said, I feel like this would work better at night, after she’s already out, maybe at a bar on the beach. The thing that sucks about day game is it’s a lot harder to isolate (without coming off as creepy or pushy) due to the fact that the girl may just have a legitimate excuse for leaving. other than timing, this is solid.”
Yup, day game is a different beast than night game.
Grade: B
(Another) Anonymous wrote:
“Well, I’ve gotta go. It was nice talking about invisible sharks with you.”
This is a shit test. Agree & amplify, and get her contact info with a single retort, with a simple, efficient phrase:
“Yeah, we should do it again sometime, over drinks.”
Clean and clear and relevant to her departing salvo. Remember, MagGirl is getting up to leave. There just isn’t time or context for continuing along a conversational path that requires a lot of flirty banter. A lot of commenters wanted to press on with the shark theme, but that would sound forced. One, you’re trying to pump life into an overworked subject matter, and two, you’re forcing her to banter when she’s given the unspoken signal that a change in topic is appropriate.
Grade: B (Not the best game, but doesn’t pussyfoot around, either.)
John Ryder wrote:
“Well hold it now, I’ve got all kinds of dangerous animals to show you… not all of them invisible…”
Sexual innuendo always comes across better on paper or in the movies than it does in real life.
Grade: D for dadgam horndog!
Maya wrote:
my piece of advice.
Ignore her shit test, don’t say anything, just look at her and make a smirk. When, in the next second, she’s about to go, I’d say “Do take the cold shower at your friend’s place” (or something like that, I can’t really make lines in English, but the important fact is that she’s just met a super hot alpha guy and she needs to cool down)
Her: “Why?”
You: “You’ll cool down.”
Her: “I don’t need to … I’m not upset at all”
You: “Try it. You’ll feel the difference”
Her: “I think you’re the one who should take a cold shower, you’re seeing the sharks where there are none … this is worrisome”
Now you can change the subject of the conversation abruptly again.
It’s always interesting to hear a girl’s perspective on pickup, if only to learn what not to do. Occasionally, though, a girl’s advice isn’t horrible. This example is a little overwrought, but the catch-her-off-guard line of “Yeah, you’d probably want to take that cold shower” is pretty good if you wanted to go direct and assume that she’s into you. A risky gambit, to be sure.
Grade: Lady’s B- (so conscientious, so workmanlike, but where’s the genius?)
Killer Instinct wrote:
This is an interesting case, and the PUA is presented essentially with two sets of options: disqualification or qualification. The first decision that needs to be made is which direction to go in. Given the fact that the girl is quite hot (8-9?) and that up to that point she is relatively uninterested, disqualification tactics are the best bet. Add the fact that she is ready to leave, disqualification presents a kind of higher-risk, higher-reward method: if it works, instant attraction can be triggered. So, how to go about disqualifying? Neg can work, but needs to be very calibrated—not too strong as to piss her off, and not to soft as to prevent attraction. My tactic would be something like this:
“hey, before you go, any chance you can introduce me to your cute friend?”This is a good middle ground that is very likely to get a response, put her in a qualifying frame, and lay the foundational seeds of attraction.
Traditional game theory does support Killer Instinct’s advice to pursue a disqualification strategy. The success of this technique hinges on, as KI mentioned, the hotness of the target and her interest level. She was hot, but how interested was she? I got the sense there was incipient attraction because she didn’t try to escape our conversation before her pale friend showed up. There was momentum. Would a qualifying number close work better? Maybe it comes down to personal preference; a lower-risk but low-backfire rate method could appeal more to guys who style themselves aloof seducers.
Grade: B+
YaReally wrote:
Jesus, it’s like Game circa 2004 in here.
1. Why did she come sit down in the first place if she were only going to stay 5-10 minutes?
Because she wants his cock. She sits by him but won’t open him because she’s a hot alpha chick and she’s giving him a chance to have the balls to open her.
2. The friend leaves, and then slightly later, magazinegirl goes to leave. If she were going to leave her stuff at her friend’s apt, wouldn’t she have left with the friend?
Because she wants his cock. She stayed behind so he could at the least grab her number.
3. Who would this David be that Maggirl would 1) see him before going to her friend’s house but 2) not leave her stuff there and 3) not invite him along to dinner?
Who the fuck cares who David is? Maggirl clearly doesn’t. He’s the guy that’s totally irrelevant. Her friend tried to toss a “remember your boyfriend” cockblock in to fuck with him but Maggirl herself blew it off. Because she wants his cock.
4. The “don’t wait up if I’m late” is a little strange since Maggirl doesn’t know where the dinner is going to be. You would think she would ask her friend where if only out of politeness so that she could have said, “ok, and I’ll try to catch up with you there if I’m late” or something like that.
That’s because they were having a girl-code conversation. Cockblock was saying “Here’s your chance to come with me to escape this guy if he’s creepy” and Maggirl was saying “It’s cool, I want this guy’s cock and I’m giving him a chance, go on ahead without me” and Cockblock threw in a last “Just don’t forget about your boyfriend!” because she knows Maggirl does what she wants and all she can do is try to guilt her a bit and make it awkward for the guy.
Anyway, in response to what to do: There’s not enough comfort for a kiss at this point since she’s all alpha and still testing you, but there’s enough for a number for sure, and possibly a small insta-date (she probably won’t blow her friends off entirely, but she’ll give you some time to build more comfort with her).
If you want the number, you just tell her “So give me your number and we’ll go shark hunting by moonlight after your dinner.” as you pull out your phone. Text her flirty but not too sexual during her dinner so she’ll meet up without feeling like she’s admitting she wants sex, and escalate in person. David and the cockblock chick might fuck it up though, so an insta-date would be better.
For an insta-date just tell her you’ll walk her to her car so she doesn’t get eaten by the invisible sharks. Once her shit is tossed in the car so she doesn’t have to lug it around and you’ve built a little more comfort, push for the insta-date and make her late for dinner.
Easy peasy.
I like YaReally’s frame (it’s good for your game to assume girls want to interact with you), but just to clarify, there weren’t that many open chairs, so she likely sat where she did out of necessity. Points (2) and (3) are well taken, and honestly ones I hadn’t thought of at the time. There’s a lot going on that’s easy to miss when your brain is revving to get a girl’s contact info with the clock ticking.
Anyhow, YaReally’s analysis and prescription sounds spot on, even in hindsight. (YaReally also has some other comments in that thread you’ll want to check out.) The only quibble I have is walking her to her car to help carry her stuff as part of an insta-date to build comfort. I was reclined in a chair with my feet propped up as she was packing to leave. I imagine it would have looked try-hard for me to get up and offer assistance, unless I offered a plausible excuse for why I had to leave as well. But hey, no guts no glory, right?
Grade: A
***
What I did
MagGirl had begun collecting her stuff and shoving it into a gargantuan canvas bag. She glanced sidelong at me for a second, full of sass and flourish, signifying everything.
She smiled, or maybe smirked. “Well, I’ve gotta go. It was nice talking about invisible sharks with you.”
I hesitated before replying, watching her pack for a full five seconds. It was a hesitation that likely cost me a number close.
Finally words jumped out of my mouth. “Hey, you learn something new every day. Before we’re done…”
My sentence was interrupted when her phone buzzed in her hand. She checked a text message and her perky face drooped sullenly. Did her mom just die in a car accident?
She quickly jerked her head around at me, and muttered “Bye”, taking off in a rush, her sandals clapping loudly along the ground with each rapid stride.
The exigencies of game. It rarely goes as smoothly as you think it will in your imagination. If you aren’t prepared to deal with the possible failure of any one pickup attempt, you aren’t cut out for this game.
