First time posting to the main seduction form in a while. Enjoy!

Setup:

I went to the bar last night to play chess with some friends. We do this every Tuesday night and I enjoy it, in part, because this bar we play at brings in a lot of cute, interesting gals. I position myself while playing to be able to scan the bar. I see a cute, interesting looking-girl approach the bar several times. After one of my games is over, she goes to the bar to close out. I'm done for the day anyway so I say bye to my amigos and walk past the bar to the exit, where she is.

Approach:

As I'm walking in her direction, she glances at me, an obvious IOI. I can't think of any quick indirect openers, and direct doesn't feel right since we're all drinking around friends, so in passing I say "Excuse me, look really familiar from somewhere." It's total BS but she's interested so it doesn't matter. "You're a grad student right?" I ask about what she studies. Italian. I throw out some names I know from the Italian department, and sure enough, we have mutual connections. "Maybe that's where I know you from." Once I've got her in conversation, I tease her a little bit about coming back to grad school, make some jokes about the best way to escape (hint: dig a tunnel, the fences are all electric). She's into it. I qualify a few times (e.g., before this goes any further, you don't have any really bad tattoos do you?"). Use a soft FTC; say I have to go meet friends, which I do, but it's no rush. After the # close, I bounce to another bar. Text her a couple more qualifiers and plan a date. The whole thing was effortless.

Lessons/takeaways

  • Position yourself to approach. This was the first major learning point from this interaction--even though it doesn't show much in the FR. I go out to this bar on Tuesdays for Chess, and always put myself in a good position to 1) scan the bar and 2) walk away from a game when I need to in order to have a convenient excuse to approach (go to the bathroom, get a water, etc). My old self would have neven been so subtly proactive, but it's something that's become second nature to me at this point.
  • It doesn't matter what the situation is: if you think you're getting IOIs, go approach. Gravity is on your side, and there's a good chance that you'll be able to #close or instadate even if your game isn't on point. I of course, already know this, but it's worth reiterating. Sometimes when I'm passing people on the sidewalk I get IOIs, but inertia is working against us once we pass. Even when this happens though, I should just turn around, run back, and talk to her.
  • Power of indirect. I'm starting to feel the power of indirect. If you can seamlessly plant yourself into a conversation with a woman and then start showing value by teasing and making her laugh... you're in. I like direct for its sheer boldness, but the combination of calibration + value that you can bring to the table with indirect is potent. On that note, I could have easily opened with something a little more teasy/playful: "Excuse me, look really familiar from somewhere... are you stalking me?"