Here goes...

A friend and I have been single for a couple of months and decided to do something about it other than carpet bombing OkCupid. While we are both social, funny, and are good at closing, we haven't honed our opening skills yet.

I read The Game back in January and it got me motivated. I then read most of the Mystery Method (A and C sections) and developed sort of a hyrib set of guidelines (not a strict method) picked up from the book, seddit, and the simple pickup forums (if people are interested in this I can write another post).

Over the last month my buddy and I have been out doing our usual thing at a bar and would gently practice going up to groups of girls and seeing what works. Last Friday we decided it would be our first full-on sarging night. His younger brother was in town and came along.

Location: hipster bar Hit our first bar...it wasn't a great place to practice our new skills, so we had a drink or two to loosen up. I thrive in new social situations, but I was very anxious knowing I had a certain goal for the night. I kept reminding myself that the worse I can appear to be, if I blow it, is a normal guy. There were no sets of girls around, so while grabbing a drink at the bar I chatted up a couple sitting there to get momentum. The guy wasn't having it though, so I left the conversation and headed back to my friends. We stuck around a total of 30-45 minutes then moved on

Location: dance bar in a hipster neighborhood We headed the bar, grabbed another drink and some water (we made a pact to always follow an alcoholic drink with water so we don't get more than a little buzzed), and scanned the room. My buddy went to go open a two-set, and his brother and I came in to wing him after we saw some IOI's. His brother immediately isolated the obstacle, and I was just kind of left standing there. I would later find out that my friend thought I was walking over to them while he was, saw me turn around, and used me as the opening joke of "I hope that guy wasn't coming over to bother you." BAD FRIEND! Anyway, I went over to another group of girls and just started talking. Found out they lived by me, we shot the shit, I joked around alot, made three friends. We imposed a 30 minute time limit at any bar as a rule (and to give a time-constraint reason to leave and get a number), so I reminded my friends that "Kate and Jess" were waiting for us at the next bar and we had to leave. Both of them got their numbers using that excellent text/phone game writeup from the sidebar here.

Location: uber hipster bar Too crowded, but we went in anyway. I was in front of a table of girls, and behind them was the line to the bathroom. Some guy was taking pictures of them without their knowledge, and when I leaned in to inform them of this one just snapped at me "LEAVE US ALONE!". Now, I wasn't even trying to open them, I was just telling them something creepy was happening. I told them anyway, then I practiced a neg asking them "if she always treats strangers like this". We walked around a little bit, tried/failed to open a three set sitting down on a couch, and decided to try our luck in a neighborhood with less of a chip on its shoulder. At this point, since it's the first time doing all of this, I'm starting to get a little discouraged.

New neighborhood time!

Location: lively bar with slightly upscale crowd We head in, and I know the bartender here so we get treated well. Two GORGEOUS girls are here (with two guys), and I was going to try the Hulk Smash opener on them from the Simple Pickup forums just for the hell of it and see what happens...but a second before I start walking over, they leave the bar and go back to their men. I approach a two-set at the bar who were 5s at best, and try chatting them up by talking about what was on tv. They weren't having it, oh well. We hit our time limit and move on.

Location: outside a packed slightly upscale bar While walking to the next bar a cute girl sitting on a bench outside of a packed bar asks me for a smoke. I oblige, chat her up. She's giving me IOI's so I sit down next to hear and escalate kino pretty quickly (since she's not pulling back), touching arms, leg and her leg, etc. My friends go inside the bar, I say I'll catch up to them. During the cigarette break I tell engaging and funny stories, she says she can't find her friends so I suggest we go in and grab a drink. I make more good conversation, listen to her for little hooks to expand on, we have a shot, hang out for about 10 minutes, then say I have to go back to my friends, but we should hang out some time. She gives me her number. We hug, I leave.

Location: another lively bar with slightly upscale crowd It's getting late in the night, this is our last bar, so we're relaxing and just having fun. I end up talking to cute girls, the cuter one has a boyfriend who comes by, but at this point I don't really care and I'm just sharing funny stories with them. Invited them to a bar-related social group I help run, made three new friends.

So, the grand result at the end of the night is I opened 5 sets, got one number, and what I feel is some good experience. My friend got a number (she flaked), and his brother got two (but he's from out of town). My number resulted in a date later in the week. As much as I was anxious about all of this, it felt like getting into a pool when it's a little cold...it's very uncomfortable at first, but after a little while you acclimate to it and it feels fine.

Anyway, thoughts?