Respectful doffing of the imaginary hat I’m not actually wearing...
Despite meetings, occasionally, and various relationships, the one thing I’ve genuinely never done... is pick someone up in a pub or [non-scene] club. Whatever skillset one needs, I was off school the day they taught it.
Neither have I successfully been picked up in a pub/club. I’ll stress that: successfully. I was picked up, twice, in about six weeks, a few years back. With the first one, soon as we exchanged numbers, she held it up, there was a cheer from a group of girls on a table across the room... yep, they were out on a hen night and she’d been dared to get my number. Second time, a few weeks later, I spotted it immediately and asked her if she wanted me to give her my number straight away so she could go back to her friends and we could both get on with our nights? (She wasn’t happy...)
So, as a general rule of thumb, I avoid picking women up in pubs because I’m really, really awful at it and avoid being picked up because my only examples have been setups....