This is a field report from a while back, when I was very first introduced to the game. It's also my first to seddit (and reddit)!

I had met a wing through PAIR (I think its kinda dead now), and we were standing around the bar trying to get over our AA. It wasn't going well for me and I was nervous as hell just thinking about talking to a girl. Eventually an HB7 walks up to the bar next to me and my wing whispers, "Tell her you like salad."

Me: "I like salad."

Her: "What?"

M: I like salad, (confident pause) how about you?

H: Yeah... blah blah blah

M: Uh huh, but can you cook too?

H: Yeah, I can cook.

M: Good. I need a girl who can cook. You are my new girlfriend.... blah blah blah

At this point I was too pussy to go for any close, but, looking back on it, I could have # or K closed no problem. I decided to write this because it illustrates two ideas/techniques that have been very useful to me.

1) The opener does not matter one bit! "I like salad" became my go-to opener for a while.

2) Adding pauses in your conversation, while maintaining eye contact, conveys a lot of confidence. When I do it I imagine my pause as a mixture of making her wait for the next thing I am going to say and me being comfortable in silence when so many people are not. Women respond very well to this.

Hope you guys found this useful!