For my part, I like to be in control of myself, since I know that’s all I can control. I’ve also been something of an epicurean since I was quite little, and once plastered, it’s neigh impossible to appreciate sensual experiences, good booze included.
I suppose to me it was an enjoyable game. Since I usually arrived with (or prearranged to meet) anyone I was likely to leave with (I’ve never found bars/pubs good places to meet prospective mates or friends), I approached it as a way to observe revelers in their native habitat (and often support fellow gigging musicians with a friendly face). If young bucks turned their aggression on me, I would either engage them and get to know them for a while, buy them a cheap drink, and/or kill them with politeness. Which depended on whether I deemed them potentially interesting or merely distracting.
Comparative sobriety usually helped as it’s easy to confuse aggressive drunkies with a combination of calm strength and civility, to which they generally have no response since all they’re looking for is a fight.
On only three occasions (out of a couple dozen or so altercations) has it ever been necessary to pacify someone physically, each instance when the man (twice young and once rather more senior) physically accosted ladies in my group. I’m always careful to use a minimum of force and avoid bruising if at all possible (which it usually is since drunkies fight rather worse than even the average untrained belligerent). On two of those occasions, I explained the situation to the responding bouncer and offered that we would retire to elsewhere for the duration of the night, provided the predator was expelled as well. On the third occasion I never got that far, as the bouncer apologized for the recidivist in question (who was apparently a recurring problem for that bar and that bouncer) and left us to our drinks while kicking the groper out. In the last instance, it doubtless helped that we had been admitted without cover because the bandleader for the night had put our names on the list, and was evidently a friend of the bouncer.
