Ploy No. 4: Call Right Away
You’ve heard for years that you should wait at least two days before calling a woman to ask her out—otherwise you’ll look like a desperate loser, right? Not according to practitioners of The Game. When too much time lapses between securing a girl’s number and calling her, they call it going “stale.” They assume the girl has lost interest by then—and they’re right.

While it’s true you shouldn’t call at 9 a.m. the following day to see if she’s free for brunch, you can’t wait too long or she’s going to write you off. Sometimes you can even contact her right away, as long as you keep things light and flirty. Maggie, a 27-year-old author, said she once slept with a guy the first night she talked to him, because he texted her when they were both on their way home. “He wrote, ‘Can’t wait till tomorrow. Turn around?’ I wrote back that I was almost at my apartment, but he could come by for a nightcap. I never bothered offering him that drink—as soon as he walked in the door, I started tearing his clothes off.”

Verdict: Women aren’t put off by being wanted. If you like her, call her.

Ploy No. 5: Dress Like a Cock
In the PUA world, “peacocking” means wearing something flashy in order to stand out from the rest of the herd. The term was coined by “Mystery,” the MPUA (or “master pickup artist”) who hosts The Pickup Artist on VH1 decorated in eyeliner, black nail polish, and furry top-hats with goggles strapped over them. He insists that all his protégés radically alter their style in this way, advising them to accessorize with things like feather boas. But the message I got from women was clear: Do not do this.

“Guys should just stick with what they like,” says Jeri-Ann, a 25-year-old teacher. “You’ll look like a total dipshit if you throw on a velvet vest and choker with your old Dockers.” Jill, 30, a clothing designer, recalls hitting it off with a “conservative preppy dude” at a party. “But when we met up the next night he was wearing a tight-fitting vintage T-shirt and had his hair all greasy and mussed up. He looked uncomfortable and frankly a little bizarre,” she says.

Verdict: Do not take fashion advice from a guy in six-inch platform boots, no matter how much he claims to get laid.

Ploy No. 6: Hit on Her Friend
According to skilled PUAs, every pair of women you encounter can be broken down into a “target” (the girl you like) and a “pivot” (the girl you use to make the target jealous). The idea is, when you approach the pivot, the girl you want immediately wonders why you’re not interested in her—and does whatever she can to get your attention.

Most women say this tactic fails on two levels: one, it’s extremely slimy; two, women are sensitive to the fact that our friends need to get laid, too. You know the old adage “Bros before hos”? Most of us have that same solidarity thing going on with our girls. If we suspect you like her, we’ll simply move on to someone else. Also, bear in mind that no girl ever wants to feel like she was a second choice. “I had a guy try that once,” says Sasha, a 28-year-old dance instructor. “He was all over my friend, but when she went to the bathroom, he said he thought I was cuter. I poured my drink on his crotch.”

Verdict: This trick puts you in the unique position of potentially pissing off two girls instead of just one—whoopee!

Ploy No. 7: Make Her Work for It
Women love to be challenged. If you offer us the opportunity to show off a quality that goes beyond looks, we’ll definitely be intrigued. For pickup artists, this usually translates to inviting a woman to play some kind of conversational game, a rapid-fire series of questions and answers. But it’s just as effective to challenge her to a more physical contest.

“I can’t say no if a guy asks me to play pool, Buck Hunter, darts…even flip-cup or any other kind of drinking game,” says Mary, a 27-year-old pastry chef. “I’ll immediately want to prove I can kick his ass.” And it never hurts to up the ante. “At a party recently, I took on this guy at quarters,” says Kirstin, a 22-year-old student. “After a few rounds he said we should make it ‘strip quarters.’ Ten minutes later we were sitting across from each other shirtless and pantsless—we had to take the game upstairs to his room before it got indecent.”

Verdict: No girl wants to be considered boring or weak. Dare her to beat you at something and she’ll take you on. And if you get rejected, don’t take it personally. Remember: We almost never hate the player; we just kind of hate the Game.