Since I came back in May, I’ve been refreshing my Western-style game with VK and The Rookie. It was fun at first, but after just two months going out is no longer more satisfying for me than rolling solo in a large foreign club. To show you why, let me highlight a recent Friday night out.

GIRL #1:

I’ve gotten so used to running solo dolo game at night that a good wingman is like an added bonus. I love hanging out with my boys because of the laughs we share, not necessarily because they’re gonna help me get laid. Out of habit, sometimes I wander in a one-man wolf pack looking for opportunities.

I approached a group of four girls alone, got in, and was talking to the one I preferred (21-year-old college student) while the other three walked away. One good skill to learn is to engage the group enough so they accept you, but not so much that they all want to keep talking to you at the same time. This is where I find that Mystery’s strategy of ignoring the girl you want rarely works, because what happens is you build some rapport with a friend you don’t like, and the best-looking one will let it proceed. By the two minute mark I must engage my first choice if I want to isolate her in a reasonable amount of time.

I have a rough framework for the first thirty minutes of conversation with topics that include music, dancing, age, clothing, bar ambiance, taste in mates, and people appearances. Within each topic I have my little lines and conversation threads (I share this in Bang). This framework makes it impossible not to get a decent conversation going if the girl is single and doesn’t mind my look, allowing me to “fake” a connection with someone I have nothing in common with. If I get to the thirty minute mark, the kiss is usually mine for the taking as long as I don’t get cockblocked, but after that a semi-real connection is needed to have a good shot at the one-night stand.

With this girl I lost motivation to continue. She had no personality, no sexy vibe. I didn’t want to “work” anymore by talking to her because I had no interest in taking her to bed. So I said it was nice meeting her and walked away.

Her genetic beauty: 7
Her femininity: 5
Her sexuality: 1
Total interaction time: 10-15 minutes
Reason for no sex: I wasn’t digging the girl

GIRL #2:

We went to a different bar. I approached a cute girl walking by me and it opened. Her girlfriend started talking to my friend.

My girl was very enthusiastic in the beginning, judging by her smiling and touching. She was a little too sassy, but there was some charm lurking underneath and I liked her provocative outfit (with heels). I felt like she was a good one-night stand candidate.

Suddenly she said, “I don’t think my girl is into your friend.”

“Hmmm well they seem to be getting along, but who knows,” I said.

“No, I know her. She’s not into him.”

So what the fuck do you want me to do? I changed the subject. The energy of the interaction changed. She was smiling less. I felt like I was losing her, unable to maintain the initial momentum. Then her friend pulled her away. This is another reason why flying solo can be easier—in pairs of girls you don’t have to worry about if the friend likes your friend, though I’m not certain that’s exactly why it ended in this case. Either way, bros before hoes. Her friend’s loss.

Her genetic beauty: 7.5
Her femininity: 7
Her sexuality: 6
Total interaction time: 5-10 minutes
Reason for no sex: The girls weren’t digging me and/or my friend

GIRL #3

There was a petite girl who appeared a little sloppy (untucked collared shirt), but I saw some potential. The Rookie said she looked like Ellen Page from the movie Juno, which I haven’t seen. I approached her and we’re talking, but I realized she was totally lame. Even my energetic Moroccan friend couldn’t get her to make a facial expression. I politely bowed out.

Her genetic beauty: 6
Her femininity: 2
Her sexuality: 0
Total interaction time: 5 minutes
Reason for no sex: I wasn’t digging the girl

GIRL #4:

This girl was definitely the hottest of the night. She was a 21-year-old half-Paraguayan blonde that lived in Peru for three years as a child. Her body and face were exceptional. Her Spanish was fluent. We talked for a while and she made several compliments, saying I was “interesting” with a “rugged” look. She made a comment that her ex was about the same age as me. While it’s hard to connect with young girls, if that young girl has traveled a bit, I’ll probably be very close to her ideal type (I have a brooding traveler look they tend to like).

One problem I had is that she didn’t give me a lot to work off of, due to having little life experience (she just got out of college). At some point in the conversation we talked about dating culture in the U.S. versus other countries. My intention was to insinuate how it can be tough to meet someone you connect with, even if you live in a large city, but I think she interpreted that to mean she would die a cat lady.

Speed bump aside, we kept going. I felt like this was a very solid prospect, the best of the night thus far. Then four of her college girlfriends joined the conversation. They didn’t cockblock, thankfully, but the energy changed to where I completely lost her attention. Within a few minutes they all decided to check out another bar. I didn’t get the invite to go with them, a very bad sign. They left.

My Moroccan friend said, “Dude why didn’t you get her number?”

“Get a number off a 21 y/o that I didn’t even kiss? Pointless.” I still had a lot of groundwork to lay.

Her genetic beauty: 8.5
Her femininity: 6
Her sexuality: 3
Total interaction time: 30 minutes
Reason for no sex: Logistics, lack of solid connection

GIRL #5:

It was getting at that hour where you could see the desperation on a guy’s face. Bitch shields were going up. Men with cigars were smoking at double speed in the hopes that a woman would notice them. Other men with fedoras were constantly fixing themselves. No time for mistakes.

I saw a curly-haired girl walking through the bar alone. I stopped her and we talked for a while, in a conversation that began very similarly as the other four of the night. She was a PhD student, unfortunately, but her body was exceptional. I wanted to keep going to see what would happen.

After 15 minutes her sister rushed up to her and took her away. I wasn’t upset (am ominous sign). A short time later, she walked up to me to continue the conversation. This was a huge indicator of interest, and normally my one-night stand radar would go bonkers, but while we’re talking I noticed she was careful about maintaining her distance from me. She had proper posture, not the sloppy slouching that I would be looking for at this time of night (she stopped drinking because she had to “get up early”). There was very little touching and the interaction had a coolness about it. The auto-shutoff mechanism on my one-night stand radar kicked in. She also had lazy eye, which was rather distracting (her right eye had a mind of her own when she got excited about something). I told Morocco not to leave me alone with her, because I didn’t want to talk to her continuously.

The bar eventually closed and I walked to a pizza place with her, her friend, and some random guy. While they waited in line for their grease injection, I told them I was going to wait outside. I stepped out, realized that I only wanted to bang her if I didn’t have to talk or kiss her, an impossibility, then ditched without saying goodbye. I went home alone and jerked off.

Her genetic beauty: 7
Her femininity: 4
Her sexuality: 2
Total interaction time: 45 minutes.
Reason for no sex: I wasn’t into her.

Let’s say it takes me around 30 solid approaches to get one lay in D.C., and by solid I mean that I have to be into the girl and willing to do whatever it takes to get laid. On this night I made only two solid attempts. If I go out twice a week, that’s only 15 attempts a month (my day game opportunities are lacking right now). Unfortunately I back out in most of my approaches in D.C. because of not being interested in the girl, something that rarely happened in Brazil or Colombia. I put my heart into just about every approach I did down in those countries.

Since banging a new girl every two months in unacceptable (1-2 new notches a month is a rate that I prefer), there are two possible solutions for when I’m in America:

1. Go out more to increase the odds of finding girls that I like.

2. Lower my standards.

I’ve chosen option two. When I’m particularly horny I would drink more and go for the gold on girls number 1 and 5 above, in effect doubling my attempt rate. While I still consider them bangable, I know I’m reducing myself to specimens whose personalities and vibes I dislike. It slightly burns that I was pulling superior quality just a few months ago.

An interesting thing I’ve noticed since I’ve been back: my libido has decreased to such a level that I’ve considered going on supplements like horny goat weed. Ultimately I decided against it (I’m already numbing myself with more alcohol), but I do think it’s amusing how a city’s lackluster women can drive me to increased drug usage. My horny goat weed will continue to be stints abroad, not a pill, no matter how “natural” it is.

Believe it or not, I’m not upset about this at all. I’ve made peace with life in America because it’s feeding the beast for richer experiences elsewhere. Only thing is I doubt that I could live in this area permanently. Why should I when I can live like a prince in cities with better women?

On the next night I went out, I had a one-night stand with a girl I started talking to a little before last call.

Her genetic beauty: 6
Her femininity: 6
Her sexuality: 2
Total interaction time: 75-90 minutes
Reason for sex: Game, alcohol, lowering my standards
Happiness level: Unchanged

After college a couple guys introduced me to a Baltimore spot called Hammerjacks. Now closed, it was a huge warehouse-style club that had an open bar for $20 on “college” Thursday nights. It was there I started my game journey, first with dance floor crotch-on-ass game. The large size of the club meant I could approach a million girls if I wanted to, and the initial successes I had in Hammerjacks gave me the confidence to transition to talking game in D.C. bars.

One of the reasons I stopped going to Baltimore every week was because the logistics were horrible. I didn’t have one-night stand game back then so it was pointless to drive an hour for a date to see a girl who most likely lived in a dorm. I still visited Baltimore monthly because the girls were definitely of higher quality than in D.C.

I can’t say that anymore.

I went on a Friday a few weeks ago to both Canton and Fells Point for the first time in over a year and was stunned and how huge, sloppy, and ugly the girls were. The only approachable girl I saw was waiting in line of a pizza place. I actually wished to be back in D.C., and I hate D.C.

The reason Hammerjacks kept me interested for so long was because those girls I was grinding my junk on were babyfaced teenagers who weren’t technically from Baltimore. While the area of Federal Hill may have some college cuties (I’m thinking of the bar Dirk McGerk), I completely understand why all the guys who email me from Baltimore say the scene is a wasteland. Without finding a niche I don’t see how I could be happy there. The city is dead to me.

Besides the snow, did I miss anything?

I checked in with my buddy Virgle Kent the other week and asked him a few questions about working out and pick-up. Let’s start…

So say I finally convinced a guy to sign up for a gym and he’s going to go three times a week. How should he start?

Well the first thing to do is decide on what exactly he’s trying to do and what is his goal for his body. If he’s fat and wants to lose weight and get toned, he’ll probably want a program with lighter weights and more reps. If he’s skinny and wants to gain muscle mass then the weight will be heavy but less reps. Lifting weights though is a personal science, so the more you know about your body and what it’s capable of the faster you’ll achieve your goals.

How about basic nutrition: what is an easy strategy that will help with muscle growth?

Easy, for muscle growth you’ll want protein plain and simple. You’ll want it from your food and whey protein. Again if you know your body and what it can handle, you’ll want to eat to grow. It gets complicated though when depending on the time of year and where you want your body to be in a certain time. For example, during the fall and especially in the winter I eat one way to gain mass and size. During the spring and summer I eat another way to cut up. But let’s keep it simple: high protein.

I weightlifted for years in addition to intense cardio but never got big. Here in Colombia I weightlifted without cardio for two months and got bigger than I’ve ever been. How do you feel about cardio exercises with weightlifting?

Cardio is a very tricky thing. If you’re a big fat fatty naturally then you’ll need to do a lot more of it and weight lift to get muscle definition and especially if you ever want to see your abs. But guys like you and I who are naturally skinny and have low body fat at our age, TOO MUCH cardio is the enemy. You start doing too much or running for long distances then that will hinder how much muscle you can build. I really never do cardio, never even ran and was huge. But honestly there’s no way to escape doing cardio. I got away with not doing it in my early 20′s but as I get closer to 30, I do it lightly. To get ready for Vegas I only jogged on the treadmill 2 to 3 times a week for 10 minutes. I also would change it up with running incline for 5 of those ten minutes. Cardio is needed.

What are some common mistakes you see guys making in the gym?

Ha, doing some gay ass John Basedow work out they read in Men’s Health, where they try to balance on one foot on a ball while dumbbell curling with one hand and doing an overhead tricep extension with the other. The exercise doesn’t do anything but make the guy look stupid. But the more serious mistake is not asking for help on how to correctly do an exercise. Incorrect form on any exercise is a total waste of time of that exercise.

How do girls react to men with large muscles? How do you avoid being seen as a typical huge guy with muscles?

For the most part I think the girls are cool with it but I also understand that the girls are typically already into guys with muscles. But I find it cute when they find a reason to touch me or feel me up. Sometimes they straight grope and don’t even try to hide the fact. I don’t think if a girl has a conversation with me they can peg me as a meathead. This is DC so as soon as I tell them about my nerdy job working with numbers and spreadsheets in finance it’s kinda of hard to peg me as a meathead. Once I get into my love of Woody Allen movies its a wrap I’m not your typical meathead. I also joke around that I do a lot of Yoga and Pilates and move away from talk of the gym. Basically I try to play up my nerd side.

If a guy takes your advice and gets big, is there anything new he needs to keep in mind when gaming a girl than when he was weak and flaccid?

Yeah, don’t act like a meathead. Don’t talk about your workouts and even going to the gym. Be polite and a little sensitive. It’s easy and tempting to slip into cave man mode (I’ve done it from time to time) and get all “Me Tarzan, you Jane” on them. Over the years I’ve found that being big yet open, approachable and civilized works well with women. You want them to feel like you can protect and take care of them physically but you have a few things to offer them on the emotional side. Be as well rounded as you can be.

How would you describe your overall pick-up style? Does it change depending on city or environment?

My overall pick up style is probably Humor and Comfort. I want the girl to make her laugh, make her feel comfortable as if we’ve known each other for years. I don’t want it to feel like a pick up. I try my best to disarm and charm. A girl will more likely let you put your penis inside her if she feels comfortable about it (of course this isn’t always 100% trust me).

As far as city goes, we’re in DC it’s like marathon training in Colorado or when Goku trains on King Kai’s small planet with 100x Earth’s gravity. It’s harder, the women are ice cold. This city will force you to develop your game mentally or sink. As much as I hate it, I owe my success with women to it because it has made me a better at game. When I go to other cities or environments my game stays the exact same but the response is ten times as strong.

You have the ability to come up with interesting on-the-fly openers that work. Care to share your strategy for doing so?

It’s simply based on environmental observation. I read somewhere that a real ninja can find 10 things in a room to kill you with. I think a guy should be quick and smart enough to find ten things in a room he can talk to a woman about. I think some people make openers way too complicated, just keep it simple and remember that an opener is a reason to have a conversation. When all else fails just make fun of another less attractive girls outfit (just make sure it’s not her friend or sister).

We talked about mistakes that guys do in the gym. But how about in the bar? What do they do which kills their chances of getting with girls?

Reading The Game or Pick Up Blogs and taking it to literally. Picking up is a state of mind it’s not so much what you say but how you say it. Guys hear Peacocking and go out and buy huge gold male sign necklaces, shave a mohawk on their heads, get tear drop tattoos on their face then wonder why no girls in DC will talk to them. They could have simply put a pink pocket square in a blue blazer and gotten the result they were looking for. This is not something you can learn from a book, in a seminar or in one year.

Another thing is how they carry themselves in a room or in the company of women. Mistakes like not making eye contact, hands in pockets, and standing at the back of a crowded bar or away from the dance floor, even when they’re out to pick up girls.

How do you feel about mud turtles?

God bless em. Some nights you’re feeling lazy, you’ve had a long day and your really don’t want to work for it, you just need a turtle. They know how to make a man feel great because they really appreciate the smallest attention you give them. Just try not to go on a Turtle bender… no more than two turtles in a row, then cut yourself off and go for the regulars.

How much longer do you think you’ll be doing this? Do you see an end game in the near future?

Real talk Roosh, I want out so bad I can taste it. This life is all I’ve known since one year out of college. It scares me that each year I get a little bit better at it, this nomadic life, being selfish. You learn to become an actor to force a fake connection with a girl. But if you do this long enough it’s becomes harder and harder to tell yourself or know when you’re not faking it, so what happens when you meet a girl you really like how do you turn this off? If you’re good at being a certain type of man how easy will it be to fail when you try to be a different man.

There will be times when you go on hot streaks and hook up with so many women and feel good for a short while. In a couple of months you won’t even remember their name or the hook up whatsoever. It makes you question what’s the point. But this is a prison of our own creation. We all came in of our own free will. At some point each of us decided that we wanted to know how to be good with women. I wonder if we would have made that same choice if it we knew it meant the loss of emotional connection.

To answer your question though I hope the game ends soon for me but the chances are very slim.

Thanks VK. Read more about his thoughts on game and life over at his blog VK’s Empire Of Dirt.

For those of you in DC who want to check out Brazilian girls, I got the event for you.

Gal Costa, a famous Brazilian singer, is playing at George Washington on November 1. Tickets prices seem reasonable, and I’d go if I was in D.C. The pre-sale code is BRAZIL.

Here is a sampling of her music…

Pretty loungey.

This is probably the worst type of event to meet girls, but for a few hours you can enjoy the beautiful language and pretend you’re cultured. And hey, maybe you can get yourself invited to an after party.

It’s very unnerving when I’m out on a date with a random girl and she says something which strongly implies that she knows about my blog. In the past few months I feel like it’s happening with every girl. The only response I have come up with is to twiddle my thumbs uncomfortably.

I had a first date where the girl said, “You must be able to save a lot of money since you live at home.” Problem was I hadn’t yet gotten to that part yet—I never told her my living situation. I asked her how she could have possibly known. She insisted I did tell her, but telling a girl that I live with my dad is such a “big deal” that I always know when, where, and how I brought it up.

On another first date I told the girl that I hang out a lot at coffee shops and she made a comment that I had a “brooding” coffee shop look. Then she said, “You must have good coffee shop game.” I’ve never, ever heard a girl utter the phrase “coffee shop game” in my life. Plus this date took place soon after I first announced my day game workshop.

Another first date. I brought up my South America trip when the girl asked, “So while you were in South America, did you blog about it?” Not conclusive, you’re probably thinking. Well, out of the dozens of times I talked about my trip before, getting asked if I blogged about it has never come up—not once. There’s a million other questions to ask first, like what countries I visited, how long I stayed, what were the highlights, etc.

Another girl. The morning after we met she asked, “So do you live with your Mom?” I told her I didn’t, since I don’t, but then she asked again. I looked at her and said, “Is there something you want to tell me?” She said no. Then on a future date she slipped two more times. First, when I told her I had two younger brothers, she said something to the effect of, “Aww chubby brothers are cute.”

“How do you know they are chubby?” I snapped. (One way to know is the photos that I have put up on the blog.)

Her answer was unsatisfactory: “Oh little boys are always chubby.”

The charade continued, but first let me tell you what two of my groupies did recently. They hit me up on Facebook, properly stroked my ego, and then met up with me one night at a bar. One of the first things they asked me was for their rating on the 1-10 scale. (From time to time I get emails with pictures attached asking this as well). I refused, just because it’s too weird, and that was that. Well my date, while laying in bed, asked me to rate her. She fished by saying, “I’m a 6, right?” A girl that doesn’t know about my blog would never bring up her rating.

There were one more peculiar incident, in Brazil, of all places. I’m in a cab with my date (our second), when she randomly she asked, “Do you have a blog?” At least she was direct about it.

Here’s something one of my students told me:

In Entourage the actor Jeremy Piven plays Ari, and in a recent interview he said that girls he meets never admits that they know him from the show. But every now and then they accidentally call him Ari instead of Jeremy, and then quickly tries to play it off.

Not counting the Brazilian, three out of four girls I mentioned got my attention first. They either made strong eye contact or approached me outright. Based on what I know about the female gender, I’m forced to conclude one thing:

Besides generic compliments, girls are reluctant to do things which announce a man’s value. By bringing up my blog, a girl is admitting that she is a fan or a follower (one stop short of a stalker), and this decreases her value relative to mine. It’s not in their best game interests to reveal that they know me. So they don’t.

What’s irritating to me is that even after a girl slips badly, she still doesn’t admit it. But I know how I’m going to deal with it from this point on. I’m going to ask her so what’s your favorite post, and she’s going to give this fake, confused look, and I’ll fuck her anyway, because if it mattered she wouldn’t be out with me in the first place. But it won’t happen since in only sixteen days I’ll be in Ethiopia.

I’m doing another happy hour with Arjewtino and Lemmonex at Marvin next Friday. For more details on the concept visit their blogs now.

Young people in large groups that come exclusively for happy hours tip poorly. At tables they drop out one at a time and always underestimate the cost and number of their drinks. They also forget about tax, which at 10% eats half a 20% tip. With them I automatically add gratuity. The last guy standing is usually screwed but that’s life.

I don’t automatically add gratuity to large groups of old people. They tip very well.

Gay people tip the best.

People give higher tips when paying by credit card than cash. I suppose because in the latter case they see their money physically leaving them.

No matter how expensive a drink is, most people will not tip more than a dollar a drink at the bar. But if you’re serving them at a table, they will give you a tip at around 20%, even though it took no additional work than walking a few extra steps.

People don’t understand that when a bartender gives them something for free they’re supposed to give more than a dollar extra. The bartender is not stealing from the bar (because that’s what it is) to save you save money. If a bartender gives you two $7 drinks for free, the tip on those drinks alone should be at least $10. You can’t go wrong if the tip on a free drink is the cost of that drink. That ensures you’ll be treated extremely well on all your visits. For this reason I very rarely hook up people I don’t know, even if it’s a group of girls that are flirting with me.

If the manager tells me to give a regular customer something like a free appetizer or drink, I don’t say it’s “on the house.” Instead I say it’s “on me.” That ensures it’s a higher tip because it makes it seem like I went out of my way, not that it was a business decision by a manger or cook.

The tip is always dismal when one person pays by cash and one by credit card. The guy paying cash puts his share along with the tip in the billfold on top of the credit card. They give it to me and say, “Put it on cash first, then the rest on the card.” The guy with the credit card then adds a tip only for his portion, not remembering (or caring) that he just used the tip his friend gave me to pay a few dollars less. This problem would be solved if the guy paying cash would hold that tip until after I run his friend’s card.

The percentage tip I get is strongly correlated to the amount of times I make the patron smile or laugh. I used routines on bar patrons, not unlike what I would use on girls in the club.

It’s hard for people to give more than 20% tips no matter how amazing the service is. After a certain percentage it feels like throwing money away, because it is.