Do you like to gamble?

I showed up at Dames & Games early on a Saturday night, 9 p.m. November 16, after I'd made a first-time exploratory trip to Gold-Diggers on Santa Monica Boulevard only to find out it hadn't been stripping for three years now and was a boutique dive bar instead of the stripclub it gave off the vibe of due to its looks from the street. I'd also stopped by The Playpen on South Santa Fe Ave. to do a first-time visit before coming here but although Playpen looked high-end it appeared dead and too well-lit so the $20 cover didn't feel like a good investment. So I opted not to go in and came to this place instead.

Online the cover was listed as $10 but the doorman standing in the entry asked for $15, and wouldn't budge -- friendly but firm as he scanned my i.d. card under the desk light. I probably sounded like a total cheapskate straight out'o the gate and catching a glimpse of the girl at the desk beside him she wasn't impressed. I told him this club's cover was listed on TUSCL as $10. "The cover charge is fifteen dollars," he cheerfully repeated. "We're not the Spearmint Rhino, sir." After I paid he told me the door charge gets me a pat down. He then asked me to turn around and face the door so he could make sure I have "no weapons of mass destruction," as he gave me a brief frisk and ran the electric wand over me.

I got an $8 bottle of Corona with no lime from the sports lounge in back and tipped the female bartender $2 even though she took her sweet time finding my eyes to serve me. There was a medium-sized crowd of marks, I'd say, mostly in the bar area and not around the stage. This is a larger club, mind you, and it was still rather early in the evening. I saw two main rooms, one being the sports bar in back and the larger stage room in front. The stage itself is big and curvy with three poles in its center space. The club has a well maintained appearance and seems high-end and it's just dark enough, which I like. The girls this night were alright looking, mostly fives, and would go on singly or two at a time, sometimes three. A few were slightly on the more chunky side, some less. Okay I honestly wasn't that impressed with any of them except Lola. Not too into some of the chubbies with pear-shaped asses I saw but whatever, to each their own. They probably have their regulars too.