FUN IN THE SUN

It isn't the free-flowing $17 drinks or the dance music pulsing from the DJ booth that makes the Palms' Ditch Fridays pool party feel like a nightclub scene.

It isn't even the $20 cover charge or the hulking bouncers at the door; it's the lies. And the desperation.

"I wasn't looking at your body, I was too busy looking at your face," says New Yorker Vinny (last name withheld and first name questionable) to a bikini-clad woman with a near-perfect body.

Moments earlier, he had reached out to stroke her bare midsection, declaring she looked kid-free, though she had a child two years ago.

Local Kelli Zucker, in her white bikini, laughed at Vinny's obvious pickup line, standing with him and his friends in the brutal afternoon sun, sharing cocktails and, like the other thousand or so oiled bodies in and around the water, doing what everyone in Las Vegas seems to be doing this summer: partying it up by the pool.

Ditch Fridays at the Palms is one of the latest additions to the local pool party scene. The idea is for locals to ditch work on Fridays and join the tourists by the pool. Managed by the Nine Group, it joins a growing list of resort pools that are run by nightclub operators, including Hard Rock Hotel's Rehab, The Mirage's Bare and The Venetian's Tao Beach.

With the club scene at near-critical mass, it's the next step in entertaining visitors while separating them from their money.

"If you look at the last five or six years of night life growth, all of the major players -- Pure, Light -- they've all added two or three venues apiece to the Vegas skyline," says Michael Fuller, director of public relations for the Nine Group. "Now when a new one comes in, one drops out. The players are saying we need to expand our market and the overall night life experience (by) running the pool like a nightclub. I think it was a no-brainer, a match made in heaven."

"Heaven" is one way to put it. "Essential" is what Philadelphia visitor Matthew Marcus calls it. Without Ditch Fridays, he and his friends would be "walking up and down the Strip. It'd be boring, actually," he says.

Instead, he leaned against the railing on a second-floor platform on a recent Friday, looking down with three of his friends from the best vantage point at the pool. They could see every frolic in the water, every battle for an open chaise, and nearly every successful and failed hook-up taking place at the bars and in the pool. A frequent visitor to Las Vegas, Marcus has been to the Hard Rock's Rehab several times. He heartily approved of his first visit to Ditch Fridays.

"Vegas is always re-creating itself. The nights are good, now they want the days to be just as good. Besides Rehab on Sundays, this is by far the best pool party scene," he says. "If you can't come to Vegas and have a good time 24-7 now, you're dead."

It's a similar experience to Rehab, says New Yorker Jason McGrade. He and his friends, including Vinny, have been to Rehab many times. The people are the same, he adds, but they're a little more "chill."

The key components of a nightclub -- great sound system, layered design, live DJ, great lighting -- are all incorporated into Ditch Fridays, Fuller notes.

The guy/girl ratio is important, too, although on this Friday, men far outnumbered the women. If the pool reaches its 3,000 person capacity, doormen will be more selective in who they allow in, always giving women preferred status, Fuller says.

Since its launch in May, Ditch Fridays has been successful, Fuller says. It is averaging about 2,400 to 3,000 visitors, while the larger Rehab draws about 3,000 to 4,000.

On this recent Friday, names were de rigeur, with many people giving fake ones or none at all.

"What happens at the Palms should stay at the Palms," says Vinny's friend, Jeff, who has a girlfriend in New York.

Guests stood waist deep in the pool, leaning against a block wall that runs down the center. Chaise lounges rested atop the wall, water lapping at the legs. Six blackjack tables, manned by female dealers wearing bikini tops and short shorts, kept a steady business, with raucous shouts announcing wins in the gaming area. Three bars are positioned around the area, ensuring that drinks are readily available.

A VIP area is on an elevated platform, featuring a small, 3-foot-deep pool. Cabanas, positioned along the perimeter of the pool, represent tables in a club, Fuller says, with supply and demand boosting them to real estate status. Bottle service is part of the cabana experience, and the cost can accumulate quickly.

"Basically, one cabana is a mortgage for most people, you're talking $1,000 to $5,000 per party," Fuller says. Cabanas cost an average of $1,100 a day, which includes the $350 area charge, a two-bottle minimum charge (bottles start at $325) and a 20 percent gratuity. "It's the cost incurred because you're getting better DJs, better sound, better lighting and venues that cost millions to build. You're getting an ultrapremium experience."

Coloradans Kim Underwood and her friend Monica Busick were having what looked to be a premium experience on the pool's only free daybed. Or so they were told. Normally, the daybeds go for $200 and a one-bottle minimum. Sometimes, management gives them away, depending on availability. Spacious and comfortable, it was the right price for them. Otherwise, the women would have been battling for one of the free lounge chairs.

Lying there since the pool opened at noon, they had witnessed not only the raucous party scene but men and women walking around, looking as cool as the 115 degree weather would allow.

"Apparently, it is The Scene. I'm surprised every man in Vegas isn't here," says Underwood, who has been coming to Las Vegas for about 20 years.

It used to be the pool was an adjunct to the hotel, she says. Now, it's another way for casinos to make money, and people have begun to pick their hotels based on the pool.

"We did," Busick says.