Hello all. 24 yr old male, 5'7" decent looking guy, athletic build, some success with women in the past but still trying to establish my identity and push myself to be more outgoing - still working on inner game constantly. On to the field report...

I went out last night in a fun California suburban town with 4+ really fun bars to hang out at. I got to my first spot at 10:30pm, it's a clubby atmosphere that was pretty dead when I walked in, much like last week when I had a great night and 2 k-closes at this bar. There were a few groups, only one group of hb's, and 25ish people overall. I grab a drink at the bar and cruise around to see who's there within a couple of minutes. There's dudes just hanging out on the edges of the dance floor looking like the epitome of AFC. I say "hey man how's it goin" to one of these guys and he's all startled and 10 seconds later says "good." Probably not the friend I'm looking for. The one group of hb's is right next to me, it's five hb's 4-9, looking at their phones and not having much fun. I say to hb9, the one closest to me, "Pretty awesome ratio you've established in this corner!" with light shoulder touch to make sure she knew I was talking to her. Hb9 looks at me like wtf? and I wait for a response. She does this weird turn back to her group but almost waiting for me to say something else (giving me an opportunity at least), but I panic and say "Are you married or mute?" (I don't think this was good but not too beta, right? Would love feedback on this) She says "no" and I don't know what to do with this (obviously). She's giving me a super cold look so I walk off.

I go back to the main bar area, make casual conversation with a guy standing by himself with a shot and beer in front him. I say "Are you doing a bomb over here?" He says "oh no, just a shot" and pushes the beer aside. ok.... His friend returns and they're dressed ridiculously well so I ask "what's the occasion?" They say they the work for ralph lauren and it's a going away party for an employee. These guys are really nice and we grab shots together and one dude introduces me to the whole group and says I'm a cool guy and whatnot. So I chill with this group for a bit, only one girl in it who's a 30+ year old hb 5 and pretty cold to me. I think she didn't like that I was butting in on their night. I try to get the nice dude to go talk to some ladies with me but he's not having it, explaining that he just lost a bunch of weight and isn't good at this stuff. Darn AFC.

I go to the dance floor and dance by myself for a bit, but don't see any moves I want to make (the place is still pretty empty), so I decide to go to another bar around the corner.

As I'm walking over I pass a group of three hb 5-7's all wearing short black skirts that are probably going to the same bar I am. I say "you girls should consider matching your skirts next time." They kind of giggle as I pass, don't say anything, and I hear one ask "what did he say?" and the another one repeat my comment to her. They do go to the bar I'm heading to and end up in line right behind me. I wait about 30 seconds and then turn and make a comment which they're receptive to but don't give me much to work with so I turn around again. (I know I needed to keep escalating the interaction, but didn't). I make one more joke/comment without kino before heading into the bar. Sorry I can't remember what I said to these girls but it wasn't bad or good really, and I never really ran into them again.

I walk inside, head straight to the crowded dance floor and dance it out for a bit. Lots of groups around, girls, guys, girls/guys. A group of three hb 3-6 is near me at one point, and I can see hb3 push hb6 toward me and I believe they're trying to initiate something for her but she seems shy. I open the hb3, trying to ignore hb6 right next to me. I say "hey whats up, I'm toaster10." She reciprocates with her name but kind of looks at me like "why is he talking to me?" I make fluff talk for 30 seconds, she doesn't introduce me to her friends who are standing there awkwardly so I bounce out of this set. Really shy, insecure girls.

I find a set of three hb 6-8's walking in. I walk over to the bar to get a drink but make a wise choice that I've had enough of those, so I offer them my spot at the bar as they're standing behind me. One says "oh your so nice" and I say "I'm not really that nice." I get a weird look from her and then I introduce myself to her friend (hb 8). She's super shy, and I can't recall what I said but I spoke with her for about 2 minutes. She is smiling, and I do touch her arm and lean in during the interaction in a confident way. However I am getting one word answers (I don't think because she wasn't into it, more just the shyness). I finally say "I tutor this super shy 4 yr old girl on speech skills and she talks more than you" to which she replies "that was a really douchey thing to say" (shit test or was what I said really crossing the line?) I say "well it's true, talk to me." to which she kind of looks embarrassed and says "that was really douchey" again. Her friend says "well this is awkward" so I eject. (I know I sucked here, these girls seemed genuinely nice, and not capable of taking negs, which I didn't realize fast enough. I need to work on the neg + compliment combo for this situation I believe - I've seen other guys have success with that on here)

After that I go back to the first bar. There's a few more people, I dance around and talk to these two hb 6-7's who are dancing with themselves and watching themselves in the mirror. I open with "narcissistic much?" to which one of them (hb brunette) is not pleased. (not sure why) The other "hb asian" is more receptive. I introduce myself, get their names, and have a kind of superficial/light convo with hb asian. I challenge her to a dance-off when I can't think of anything to say. She giggles and declines and we keep talking. She makes fun of my water bottle (I didn't need any more alcohol) and I tease her about the dancing in front of the mirror thing, with good arm/back kino and she's smiling but keeps saying she's too sober for this place. I feel like their night is really winding down and they're just not entertaining me much, hb brunette is standing there awkwardly and I say "do you mind that I'm stealing your lesbian dance partner?" She says no but won't engage at all. I feel this is going nowhere so I say goodbye and end my night.

Sorry for the massive amount of text, I obviously had a lot of short, pretty unsuccessful interactions that I really would like some help with. I think my kino is decent at times but I believe I wasn't calibrating my level of negging/teasing very well and need to work on small talk. I definitely felt some pressure to be alpha in every group because I was sarging alone, but I think because of my lack of social proof I came off as too dickish/weird. Do you guys take more of a friendly approach when sarging alone or do you still using negs/teasing a lot? Thanks for reading, kill it this weekend fellas!