In a crowd he does not stand out. I covered the Playboy Club server auditions this summer. The auditions took place out by the Palms pool, and one of the applicants asked me to point George Maloof out to her. At first she thought I was pointing at the fancier dressed man to one side of Maloof, and then she assumed I meant the taller, more muscular man to the other side of him. She had certain expectations, of course, about the man who routinely tops any list of most eligible bachelors and pals about with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Finally, I walked her over and introduced her to Maloof. As always, he was friendly without being excessively social, unpretentious and charming. And, as always, he was very much focused on the task: asking questions of his people, speaking with the Playboy employees, and examining everything. Maloof is a big picture person and a detail person.

Competitive, yes, but in chatting with Maloof about Hard Rock and Aladdin yesterday he pretended to a near total ignorance of what is going on at those properties. I say pretended. This is a man who knows how to gamble and how to bluff. Yet, he may not have been bluffing: It is also possible that he is only focused on his own plans. It must take a certain myopic relentlessness to run the Palms in a way that never delegates any of the fundamentals. I don't want to overstate this. Maloof certainly has a management team. Unlike Steve Wynn, knowing what to do himself and what to turn over to others is one of Maloof's trademark strengths. (For example, he let the experts handle the acoustic design of The Pearl.) Maloof is also willing to partner, as he does with the operators of Rain, the original nightclub at the Palms. According to everyone I've spoken with, Maloof is very easy to work with.

The Pearl is typical of Maloof's working method. Maloof set the priorities for every aspect of construction: good sound and vision. The builders have dug 90 feet down to create an acoustic pit. He also had the architects focus on keeping columns from obscuring seated views. Holding about 2,200, the room will be slightly bigger than the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay and the Hard Rock's Joint concert hall (this may changes after the Joint is revamped). But if all goes as planned and described, this will be a better venue in which to see and hear a show. But the real ambitions in Maloof's conception of The Pearl are far less obvious. This is a venue designed to attract stars to perform and watch shows. Despite the small space, the Pearl has 18 exclusive skyboxes and some come with a private lounge. Maloof is creating a greenroom fit for a king. Not that the stars need to visit the greenroom; backstage access allows performers to get to the Pearl direct from a suite in the Fantasy Tower, from bed to stage.

The stage is also hardwired to the Palms recording studio so that any performance can be made into a professional live disc (video cameras are available too). How soon before a "Live from the Palms" series starts? Actually, when I mention this to Maloof, he notes that a couple of performances recorded at the Palms are already available. This is my point: Maloof mixes big picture and details. Maloof says he hopes to do about 60 concerts a year at the Pearl. And, though he plans to open in March, he has yet to decide what act will open the venue or even how he will book the bands."I am probably going to partner," he says. That means Maloof will likely cut a deal with an outside promoter to be responsible for booking artists. This, too, is typical of Maloof: after tailoring the Pearl into a perfect fit for the Palms he is happy to let the concert pros run the day-to-day. Still, as you can see, Maloof's touch shows in every aspect of the theater.

In this way, with hindsight, it seems Maloof has charted a perfect course for the Palms' development. Whatever his aspirations, Maloof first took care of the basics in the hotel's initial construction. In 2001, it opened as a very good local's casino from the get-go, including good bargains, a food court, a movie theater and competitive gambling. Yet, from the beginning, too, the celebrities, like Paris Hilton on opening night, were there. The Palms worked harder than any other property to develop a reputation for knowing how to take care of celebrities. Before there was Pure and Tao and Tangerine, Rain was the hottest club in Vegas. Yet, none of this can fully explain just how much attention Maloof managed to generate for his resort. Starting with MTV's "The Real World," there has probably never been a single interior as familiar as the Palms to viewers of cable television ("Inked," Jenny McCarthy's show and many, many others). On cable, the Palms is pure glamour: a celebrity-packed hot spot and trendsetter. The other Palms, the one with little old ladies playing the slots by day, goes unmentioned.

Now, in 2006, it seems like Maloof has finally built the glamorous version of the Palms alongside the plainer one as if both had been there all along. Every one of the items in the expansion helps make real the cable version of Palms: the extravagant rooms of the Fantasy Tower, the exclusivity of the Playboy Club (already a regular part of the cable show "The Girls Next Door"), the recording studio (bringing in rock stars like the Killers who recorded "Sam's Town" there), and now, the Pearl.

(Photo: Sarah Gerke / For The Times)