Bonsai 1 on 1 - Los Angeles, May 2010

On the weekend of May 7, 8 and 9, 2010, I did a 1 on 1 workshop with Love Systems instructor Bonsai . Bonsai and I had worked together previously at my first bootcamp in Los Angeles during the last weekend of January, 2010. Additionally we had run into each other in the field several times since then. Since my interest was in improving my “normal girl” game and learning “stripper game” Bonsai as a stripper game specialist was the obvious choice. It was obvious not only because of his expertise in the areas where I was seeking improvement, but also from the standpoint of rapport. We already knew each other fairly well from boot camp and all our chance encounters in the field .

Thursday evening we talked briefly by phone. Bonsai outlined the scheduled activities for the next three days and set up our meeting time for the first 1 on 1 encounter, to begin at 7:00pm on Friday. The plan was basically the following:

Friday – classroom instruction from 7:00pm till about 10:00pm, then off to a bar in downtown L.A. for normal girl game till about 1:30am. From there we would adjourn to a strip club for about an hour and a half to conclude the night’s program.

Saturday – classroom instruction starting at 1:30pm till about 7:00pm that evening. Break for dinner. We would then reconvene at the bar downtown at about 9:30pm for more work on normal girl game till closing and then off to another strip club for another hour and a half to conclude the evening.

Sunday - classroom instruction on fashion and stripper game starting at 3:00pm for about six hours. Then off to three strip clubs in succession to conclude the night’s program.

Bonsai arrived at my house at 7:00pm Friday and immediately we got down to work. The first part of this meeting was more or less a review of my current skill level and an examination of my sticking points . Like some guys in the beginning stages of learning pick up I can open fairly well but generally have trouble holding a set’s interest for longer than a couple of minutes. These sticking points were diagnosed as lack of physical escalation and a need to improve my attraction technique, specifically teasing and role play. We also focused on transitioning and cold reads , which bridge the gap between opening and attraction. Additionally Bonsai emphasized moving a girl soon as possible after opening a set to test for compliance and using the questions game to enhance attraction. We smoothed out my normal girl action model. We also touched on stripper game since we were going to a strip club after the bar. But Bonsai painted it in fairly broad strokes since all day classroom on Sunday would be dedicated to stripper game exclusively.

Bonsai invited Phero, an aspiring instructor, along to help out with the 1 on 1 . He reasoned it was better to have an extra pair of eyes on me for the in field work downtown that night.
After making some adjustments to my wardrobe for the evening we were off for the bar in downtown LA. Friday night was a blast. On the way down we challenged an HB9.5 cougar to a drag race and got a great laugh out of her. It was a good omen.

After 4 or 5 warm up sets I brought over a 2 set to the table where we had bottle service. My technique was continually monitored by Bonsai and Phero for body language , escalation, prominent use of alpha smile, etc. There were some code phrases we had set up in advance to signal me to escalate and become more smiley and playful when the situation warranted. The first set of girls I brought over were not really my type but I number closed them in fairly short order nonetheless. A short interval later I opened 3 Asian nurses on the opposite side of the bar, got them laughing immediately and after a short transition routine led them by the hand to our table. Within seconds Bonsai and Phero were there to wing and occupy the other two girls who were not my target. Let me tell you these girls were fun! We toasted probably 20 times. We filled up everyone’s drinks maybe three times in about 40 minutes and partied and laughed like there was no tomorrow. We all number closed on our respective girls and then an extraordinary thing happened. My girl shelled out $60.00 for 6 absinthe drinks for all of us. I looked on incredulously. Later Phero said, “She must have really dug you, man. You don’t think there was any way she would lay out that kind of money for drinks if she didn’t like you.” Bonsai agreed and added, “Look dude that was an amazing set. Everything we get tonight after this is gravy.” We stayed at the bar probably another hour and a half. I opened lots more sets. But Bonsai was right. None were as cool as the three Asian nurses. We then adjourned to a strip club downtown. We stayed probably 1½ hours. Bonsai coached me on body language and stripper game technique the whole time. It was particularly helpful to observe Bonsai and Phero in action at the strip club…you know the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” I talked to one girl for about an hour and after she returned after her stage dance I number closed her… third number close of the night for me.


Saturday we commenced classroom at 1:30pm as planned. First on the agenda was to review Friday night’s in field work at the bar and strip club downtown. We touched on what went right, what went wrong but overall since the night before had been so great we moved pretty quickly to new material and focused on how to refine my “normal girl” action model. Again my areas needed for improvement were to be a better teaser and role play guy. But we also discussed important topics such as moving girls for isolation, how to befriend everyone in the group, and to think in terms of seeing an imaginary traffic light on top of everyone’s head. Green lights of course were the desired goal. And the objective was to turn yellow lights into greens and red lights into yellows and then to greens. Additionally many comfort topics were discussed including identity , vulnerabilities, commonalities and trust. All the above issues and many more were taught and discussed in great depth but the details are extensive and are beyond the scope of this review. Let’s just say it was a lot of material and has taken some time to digest and instill. Repetition and practice are the key disciplines needed to get your mind around it and make it happen.

After a break for dinner, Phero picked me up at my house at about 9:15pm and took us both to the bar where we met Bonsai , grabbed another table for bottle service and then I went to work. On Bonsai’s advice I avoided “sharking” the room and directly looking at potential target sets. Instead I hung out with groups of people on the periphery of the room and picked up target sets using my peripheral vision. Until midnight it was rough going however. Even with bottle service and many, many openings I was unable to get anything going. In fact one funny moment: I lost track of whom I had already talked to and opened the same set of chicks with the same direct opening . Only a momentary setback however…. Lol. By now I’ve been at it for about two hours with no positive results. During one break in the action I was sitting at the table with Bonsai. He of course recognized my frustration and immediately bucked me up. “Look… put on your great alpha smile and go get ‘em.”

Sure enough I walked out onto the defacto dance floor and within three minutes had a two set back at the table. I had been fatigued but I manufactured some energy and voila…it worked. I worked my target while Phero occupied the obstacle. I took her through attraction, disqualification, qualification , some comfort and then tested for compliance. We moved away from the table out into the club to play Fuck, Marry, Kill. Well LOL…. I picked out the grossest guy I could find and said to her, “I just flashed on you fucking that guy.” My delivery was really dry instead of overtly funny. My mistake…she didn’t like it. She said, “I don’t want to play this game.” “OK”, I said, “let’s go outside.” Doorman wouldn’t let us out. Only other place was the smoking room. That was out. Long story short: the set collapsed. It was partly my fault; it was mainly just unlucky circumstances with this girl and where we wanted to go. Oh well.

Opened about five more sets with no luck. By now it’s getting on toward closing. Probably about 1:15am Bonsai and I were gearing up to bail, and here comes Phero (god bless him) with a three set. Three beautiful babes from Texas sat down at our table for the rest of the night. I number closed mine; Phero number closed his and I believe Bonsai number closed his. Thanks to Phero we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. It’s a real testament to one of the advantages of working with a great wing .

Another strip club, our destination strip club for the night was unexpectedly closed. So we adjourned early and set up to reconvene at my house at 3:00pm on Sunday.


We began on Sunday with a review and critique of Saturday’s in field work at the bar and then moved to a broad overview of stripper game. We touched on all the basic bullet points. Stripper game is essentially a comfort game. There are about forty routines that have to be delivered in the proper order to effect good stripper game. Since they are all designed to key from the previous routine it is essential that they advance in order from one to the next to be effective. You get them memorized in your head then you reel them off to the stripper after she approaches you. That’s it in a nutshell. If you can keep her interest through all the attraction and intrigue routines…if she will stick around over time (about 45 minutes to 1½ hours) to hear your delivery then that and only that is the true test of interest and attraction. It has to be apparent that she is choosing to have a conversation with you over working the room for lap dance money. There are certain pings for attraction. Her giving you her real name as opposed to her stripper name is an example. If she will let you turn off her “stripper mode” is another.

At this point we took a break to go to the mall. My Wranglers needed to be replaced. I had recently bought a tailor made velvet jacket which looked super cool. But I need some pants to go with it. Bonsai helped me pick some designer pants to go with the jacket. “Wranglers are ok for day game .”, he said. “But for night game you need something that is better coordinated.” Who knew? As a musician I never worried too much about wardrobe. You could wear pretty much you wanted and the girls would approach you. Now without a stage to play music on wardrobe, I have come to understand, is much more important. You have to be able to distinguish yourself and wearing the proper clothes is a piece of that puzzle.

After the mall we delved into the nitty-gritty of stripper game. Again… the details of stripper game are so extensive that they exceed the scope of this review. Suffice it to say though that the entire rest of the evening was dedicated to me scribbling notes and writing routines as fast as I could.

After dinner we headed for a strip club in Torrance. On the way Bonsai continued to brief me on stripper game: the types of strippers to watch out for, where to sit in the strip club to use the terrain to your best advantage… how to watch out for and deal with interfering managers, DJs, waitresses, and customers, etc. He also had me memorize the first tier of routines to use for the nights game. I had so much stuff swirling around in my head that I wrote bullet points in my Iphone and then memorized key words to help me deliver the routines in order. Plus I tried to memorize a set of witty comeback remarks designed to counter her typical opening stripper routine.

It was still early so the club was completely dead. We were approached by only one girl who was super young and obviously brand new to the business. She was so new in fact she didn’t even know her own routine except for “Would you like a dance?” Therefore she didn’t come on with the setups for my witty comebacks and I was left sort of tongue-tied. We bailed in fairly short order. We determined it would be better for me to wing it on this outing at least for the most part.
Next stop a strip club in downtown L.A. Within minutes I was approached by a good looking blonde Playboy model stripper. I ran all the routines I could think of that were appropriate, got her attracted I thought, ran a good comfort game and then went for the number. She gave me a lame excuse about her phone being broken. But she did give me her real name and asked me if I was on My Space. It was her way of doing two things: seemingly giving me contact info in lieu of a broken phone and letting me know that she was… well……married. That I found out later at home after doing a My Space search. LMAO. She came back later after doing her stage number and lap dancing a married couple and then called me a “troublemaker” when I again declined her offer for a dance. ;-).

In the mean time Bonsai was working his own game on a brunette. I couldn’t hear all that went on but after studying stripper game for several weeks now and understanding the routines I know what happened. Bonsai ran his game on her smooth as silk for about 40 minutes. She left to do a stage dance and returned, a good sign of attraction, and then stayed around about 30 minutes more. Then I saw her give him her number and it went right into his phone. Wow.
“Did you see that? One shot one kill.” Bonsai said as we passed through the bathroom on our way out. That was that. I was hooked more than ever.

Last stop another strip club downtown, the same club we went to on Friday where I number closed a Dominican chick from Miami. After sitting down I was approached almost immediately. I ran good game, kept her totally entertained, turned off her stripper mode, and got the doggie dinner bowl look half a dozen times over the course of about 45 minutes. Never did she once hit me up for a dance. She was a horse trainer from Colorado and very attracted. The only problem was when I asked for her number she said, “I can’t…. I’m well…married.” “But…”, she said, “if I weren’t we’d be out riding horses tomorrow.” Some consolation I guess….But just bad luck, two married chicks in a row.

The ride home to my house was for final questions and comments. By now I was exhausted after three days of intense personal boot camp. Bonsai said that the weekend had been a real roller coaster ride….intense, joyful, fun. I agreed and said I had learned an enormous amount, would study hard and we would talk soon. In the days following we exchanged emails for follow-up questions and advice on how to continue with text game . All my number closes I have established a text relationship with except one…the one I wasn’t interested in in the first place. I have been out probably 10 times since my 1 on 1 and I have gotten 4 new stripper numbers from stripper game…. I have established text relationships with all of them. We’ll see what happens.

The 1 on 1 was an amazing, intense, comprehensive, emotional but above all supreme learning experience. Bonsai and Phero were great. Bonsai is indeed a master at his craft. I would highly recommend a 1 on 1 with Bonsai to anyone who has the time and inclination to make rapid quantum leaps in their game. It was a weekend I won’t soon forget.

Wow this must be one of the longest reviews ever. Thanks dude! You rocked it that weekend. Keep up the work and keep practicing. Real learning takes place in the field.

Remember guys, Brunettes > blonds.

Killer review man! It's great to see how much you've progressed and the continual improvement you're making, remember what we talked about and keep at it!

Originally Posted by Bonsai

Remember guys, Brunettes > blonds.

Haha, the secret is out. Brunettes are like my blonds.