By the end of a recent night with friends, Brigitte Abbot had successfully matched six couples destined for matrimonial bliss. Abbot was thoughtful about it, pairing, for example, a cool extrovert and sultry club fiend — both had undeniable sex appeal, and Abbot hooked them up right away.

"You don't want to just willy nilly match anybody," explained Abbot, 32. "You don't want it to be a waste of people's times. ... It needs to be worthwhile."

The matchmaking fun was all pretend and part of "Martinis & Men" (see box), a new game that spurred Abbot and three of her girlfriends to dish "Sex and the City"-style about dating in Hawai'i, finding Mr. Right and playing matchmaker.

"This game is really fun because it gives you the opportunity to look at what types of different people are out there and who would make a good match," Abbot said.

By the second round of sweet martinis and mini quiches, "girls' night" at Abbot's cozy Kane'ohe digs was in full swing.

The giddy game-time conversation covered everything from ex-boyfriends to flirting, like the married Tiffany Pratt's former technique for getting a guy's attention at a crowded club.

"When you walk to the bathroom (at a club), you scan the room," said Pratt, demonstrating her seductive stare and walk as her friends laughed hysterically. "You see somebody cute, you look and you smile.

"Then when you walk back from the bathroom, you walk past him and say, 'Excuse me,' " Pratt said with a breathy voice, brushing against one of her friend's legs as an example.

Club-going guys you're not attracted to require a different strategy, she said.

"You don't meet their gaze," said Pratt, 34. "You catch them in your peripheral view and you don't look."

IT'S HARD TO MEET MEN

With just one roll of the dice, Juliet Lighter set up two socialites who immediately tied the knot.

If only it were that easy in real life. Meeting men to date seems to be one of the most difficult steps — especially on an island like O'ahu, said Lighter, 31.

"It's hard because in our age group, everybody kind of knows everybody," said Lighter, who was Miss Hawai'i USA 2002. "It's so small here."

Many local men also seem much shier, Abbot added.

"If we lived on the Mainland, I think it would be different because guys there are a little more forward," Abbot said. "Here ... they're kind of introverted."

Complicating the shy boy-meets-interested girl scenario even more is the group outing, she said.

"Back in the day, we used to go out as a whole group of girls," Abbot said. "If six girls go out, nobody will talk to you. But if you go out in twos, you're more approachable and you're less intimidating."

So Abbot often goes out with her single friend Eryn Lau, 32, who also was at the game night. Together, the pair check out club and restaurant events where they engage in small talk with interesting men.

But finding men they want to truly connect with is rare.

"I don't know where these guys are," Abbot said and laughed. "Where are they?"

MATCHMAKING FRIENDS

After winning a second round of the game, Abbot reflected on her real-life attempts at matchmaking.

"Even though it's been few and far between, I try to make really good, thoughtful matches," Abbot said. "Not just throw people together just to throw them together."

Since the tight-knit foursome have known each other for at least 15 years, they trust each other when one suggests setting up another with a guy.

Although sometimes it doesn't work out, like when Pratt set up Lighter with her brother-in-law.

"He had eternally bad relationships, and she always had bad relationships," Pratt said. "I figured, you take two bad (ones) and it might make one right."

The couple dated for about seven months.

"He's actually a really good guy, but our personalities didn't match," Lighter said.

Pratt, ever protective when it comes to her girlfriends, admits to screening her friends' possible love interests by asking them all sorts of questions.

"I want to make sure that they're going to be genuine to my friends," she said.

And that's what friends are for, Lighter said.

"These girls are my best friends because they're real and they tell me honestly if they like a guy," Lighter said. "If they don't like him, they tell me why they don't like him. I take their opinions totally to heart."

Reach Zenaida Serrano at zserrano@honoluluadvertiser.com.