I'm approaching, opening and interacting well when I hit state but I'm usually too picky about who and when I approach at the beginning and don't escalate. It's usually quite late on in the night by the time I start approaching and I usually only do a few then stop.

I liked Tyler's concept of "small chunking" your way out of your head, e.g. by starting with lots of very short interactions early on and gradually building momentum. By late on in the night you can be like the red hot coal / bush fire and could pull in the last half hour. By that time though I'm often too pissed to pull anyway.

He also says "approaching should be your only measure of success". We shouldn't get to hung up on closing. And we shouldn't call it closing as it sounds too much like a sale. You've conveyed your personality to her, she's decided she likes you and wants to fuck you. All the rest is pumping her state and getting her out of there when you know it's on. Who cares if it's early on in the night, you just have to go for it.