Decided to go to a club on my own, just to practice my skills. Here's what happened. Please criticise as I'm new:

Sat around for a bit, had a couple of beers (just bottles, avoided drinking pint after pint to keep my wits about me).

Went upstairs and there were two women (early thirties) on the dance floor on their own (week night). I stood by the entrance to the dance floor and just watched, drinking my beer. First thing I said when they noticed me was, "It would be more entertaining for me if you did The Robot". The one woman came right up to me and asked me to repeat myself. I said to her, "It doesn't matter", and walked back to the bar.

I started talking to the barmaids. One was using her mobile phone and the other was ready to serve me. I said, "How come your friend gets to play on her phone whilst you do the work?". They both laughed. The one barmaid said, "What would you like?" and I said, "I'd like to know how I can end up like your friend and get people to work whilst I play games on my phone. And a bottle of Bud please".

I sat and chatted to the one for a bit, she told me about everything she was into and then we joked that we should put some crap music on for the people dancing. She pulled out some CDs and we browsed through. I took the opportunity to get physically close, to read the track titles. We put some crap music on.

This barmaid's boyfriend came upstairs at this point, who also appeared to work there. And the barmaid said, and the keyword here is "just": "Hey, we were just chatting about..". Seemed she was trying to justify our friendly conversation. I'm hoping due to guilt from her being interested.

The other woman from the dance floor came to order a drink and started speaking to me. I asked her why they came out this evening, and she said, "We came to forget men by dancing". I retorted, "You haven't done very well". Can't really remember specifically what happened then, but she seemed interested and was quite close; she then returned to her friend. I think I could have followed that up but didn't.

I then went downstairs and started chatting to another girl who offered me several cigarettes. Her friend, some guy who has obviously been trying for some years to get her, responded to my question of "What sort of music do you like mate?" with, "Oh I like all sorts". This girl was sitting there too and I said, "Yeh, everyone says that, I was more interested in what music you actually like". The girl agreed with me when I said "everyone says that". So I turned to her and said, "What music do you like? Don't say a bit of everything".

We chatted for a bit and I got a number, a hug, and now i'm texting her.

A successful evening. I think my failing was that by the end of it I was getting fairly drunk and was in that "debating" frame of mind you get in when you're getting drunk, so I lost sight of my aims and could have been better. I waffled on a bit about myself too much.

I was actually really pleased with it, but I think if I was stone cold sober, none of it would have happened. That's something I really want to fix. I wasn't drunk, just had about 2 pints when most of this happened but towards talking to the last girl, I was getting fairly drunk, but I want to be able to do this without the crutch of alcohol.

I'm going out by myself in a few hours, what advice can you give a guy going to bar/lounge by himself?

I'm a bit to late to respond, but still curious how it went! Maybe I can (or we all can) give you some tips afterwards

I've found that making a quick joke whilst you're getting a drink is the best way to approach people. i.e. Not to immediately go up to someone and dry to get into a long conversation, but just get recognised during the time when you're up there to get a drink (so it doesn't look like you're specifically trying to come on to them).

It worked for me recently by going up to the bar next to two girls, waiting to get serverd. I waited until I got my drink and as I was walking away I, tongue-in-cheek, asked, "Is this a gay bar?". They laughed and said "No". I just said, "Thank God for that.." and walked off.

At no point was I trying my luck with them, I was there because I wanted a drink, and when I got my drink I was gone.

They approached me after that. They seemed a bit intrigued by why I asked the question; although it was fairly clear it was a joke. At that point I was able to brush over it and engage in conversation. Got a number off the one girl.

maybe your not a great writer but this is what i gathered from your stroy.

It seems like you sort of get how to do things but your game is most definitely not solid. I feel like you passed up on a ton of opportunities for no reason other than you didn't feel 100% comfortable.

You don't have to engage in the opportunity just to get something specific out of it. Just engage to engage. You never know what will come out of it even if you aren't trying.

99% of the time I get a girl, I wasn't trying to. I just rolled with the punches. Does it help that I am naturally witty? Maybe. But that doesn't stop someone else from accomplishing the same thing through different methods.

_________________
Don't think you are, know you are.