I'm drunk and I tried to post something before and fucked it up. Take two:

I was out at a cocktail masterclass tonight. I'm just beginning at this sort of thing (going out by myself), but I sat myself down at the table and introduced myself and things started to go well. Until this attractive man sat down. He was the type ladies swoon over, both very attractive and smart, and shut me down completely. I'm not the most attractive, but I don't look bad. Yet no matter what I did, no matter what I said, the ladies would ignore me. I know a bit about AMOGing, but the ladies were clinging to his every word. I would attempt to say something, I would get a brief reaction (almost a yeah yeah), and then immediately they would go back to him. The lady sitting to my left was practically leaning over me to talk more to this guy.

So the session finishes and I disengage. I might as well take advantage of the opportunity and approach a few groups. I started socializing afterwards at the bar. Time and time again, I was talking to groups of ladies (ever since I've started, approach anxiety doesn't bother me because I'll just say whatever comes to mind when I approach a woman) and was getting good vibes from the one I was talking to. I would be casually touching her, making her laugh, and making general small talk. And then her friend would need to leave the bar, and both of them would pull out. I offered to walk a couple of them home, but both smiled and said no.

So my question is twofold. Firstly, how do you deal with a situation where you are getting completely ignored by women because there's a man who outclasses you? He was attractive, he was an intellectual, he had a friend to back him up, and his game was superb. I wanted to engage myself in the conversation, but I couldn't figure out a way to enter into it, or break the dominance that he had. I've never felt so outgunned in my life...

And the second question is - how do you keep a girl's interest when her friend is trying to leave? I was trying to escalate, but I didn't want to make the conversation sexual. I just wanted it interesting and fun. Did the women just think I was being friendly? That it happened twice in one night, where her friends left and she went along with them with a quick goodbye to me, suggests that there's something wrong with me rather than them. I'm open to anything, since I've only started trying to improve my game a couple of weeks ago.