Hey bros, New here, got out of an almost decade-long relationship so my game is rusty AF. Took the plunge and got all the platinum/paid versions of Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble to maximize my opportunities; I can afford it without breaking the bank. For context about me, I've never had great game but was decent, before I got married (25+ lays; half of them were hot strippers/hooters girls as of 10-years-ago standards; apparently all the hot ones are in onlyfans now). The good: A few days ago I matched with a girl on Tinder. On my scale, she looked like a solid 7; already in her thirties but I'm almost 40 so I gave it a shot. I opened with "hey nerd" + a teasing compliment in her profile photo. She was super responsive so we texted back and forth for about 30-ish minutes; most of it was banter + qualifiers about real stuff I've been doing lately (got injured working out, so I came up with a super obvious bullshit funny story on how it happened; helped build banter, showcase some DHV, and show my sense of humor). After the banter I transitioned into "do you like wine" and when she said yes I followed with "awesome, we should share a bottle in my patio" (newsflash: I have a yard but not even chairs to warrant a patio). She asked if it was a murder patio and I addressed the concern (see the PWF blueprint, Chapter 8 I think). She asked for my number, so we transitioned our conversations there. She sent me a voice memo, so I answered in kind. We complimented each other's voices and the rest of our interactions were a mix of banter with logistics. I pretty much followed everything I learned from the blueprint and kept steering towards having her come over to my place; she mentioned how stressed and how much she'd been working so I used that as an opportunity to offer a great back and shoulders massage. She mentioned something along the lines of not having sex on the first date; I addressed that concern with something along the lines of "no expectations on my end" (really, all textbook PWF, Alex would be proud). She opened up some more about how sexual she is and the convo transitioned into sexting (this is where speaking multiple languages is great because they love getting dirty texts written in another language, at least in my experience). She said I'd already made her wet so the rest of the conversation was logistics to get her to my place. (for timekeeping, we had matched on Tinder and started texting for about 4 hours between first text and her arrival at my place). The bad: Met the girl at the parking lot. I could clearly tell that she was definitely the girl from the pictures; however, she looked busted as fuck. Teeth weren't looking great, and she was looking raggedy from work (in all fairness, she warned me that she was looking rough before she came over). Despite her warning, I immediately thought (fuck, my first catfish, welcome back to dating hell). Her skin also looked worse in person than in the pictures. She was also far less confident in person than she was over voice and text. The ugly: Your boy had been in a 14+ month dry spell. A brother's gotta eat. So yours truly swallowed his pride and did the doing. Lessons learned: -Screen for their fucking teeth. Seriously, you can tell a lot from someone's teeth; their self-care, whether they are trashy or decent people, etc. In hindsight, this girl smiled in most of her pics but never showed teeth; I never caught on to that so it was learned in hindsight. -Be wary when they're too responsive, too soon. It shouldn't be some deal-breaker, but it should be something that you note in case other red flags come up. -I'm sure there's other lessons to be learned here, I'm just not sure what else. I don't even know if this qualifies as a good LR or something I should "celebrate". It seems that this chick would have banged me regardless of what game I spat; I'm probably a 7-8 in the SMV (hispanic, jacked, decent-looking, 6-figure salary, no kids) and she's a like a damn 3-4 (looks like a 6-7 in pictures, but I sure was fooled). Looking forward to share better LRs. I've only met two other girls through Bumble and Tinder; went on a date with a bumble girl a week ago and it went shitty (enjoyed each other's company but didn't have a good opportunity for good touch or even a kiss). I tried sexualizing / teasing over text the following day but she said I reminded her too much of her ex so she wished me well. Yesterday I went on another date with what turned out to be a real 7-8 (ironically, this girl turned out to be way hotter in person than in pictures) but I think she's placed me on the nice guy category so I'm sure she'll be happy to keep me around for dinner dates or other horseshit like that; I'm just gonna practice sexualization and teasing on her and see where it goes. Date didn't go very well either; definitely more touch than the other date but no kiss. From my own experience, if we don't have sex on the first date, but at least make out, there will be sex on the second date. If there's not even a kiss, there may not even be a second date. Girl texted me this morning so she's still showing some interest, but I suspect she just wants to keep me around for convenience but not because she's into me. I just don't get that "obvious burning desire" from her. A few more notes: The hottest girls I've seen are on Hinge, I've had about 8 matches but none of them are being very responsive. Bumble has been the worst for matches; it did yield the first date out of the 3 I've had this past week but I've only matched with two other girls and none of them are being very responsive. Most of my profiles probably fit the "great catch for a boyfriend" archetype but I look dumb/ugly/old when I don't smile and/or no eye contact with the camera; i.e. I look like a handsome devil when I show my toothy smile and make eye contact, but look like a grumpy pedofile when I'm serious. I will post another thread with those and maybe I can get some help on building a more congruent profile; I just came out of a long relationship so I just want to have fun for a while before getting serious with anyone.