Downtown's historic Sterling Hotel won't be closing this month, after all.

General manager Martin Vale is taking over Sunday with plans to refresh the Sterling's 114-year-old building while still "retaining its Victorian charm."

The future of the 17-room boutique hotel and its on-site Chanterelle Restaurant became uncertain last month when longtime owner Sandi Wasserman announced she was shutting it down in mid-August because of the economic downturn.

Property owner D&S Development began looking for a new operator. That's when Vale and Alain Foisy, the Sterling's food and beverage director, stepped forward to lease the building.

"We know the place and we understand its potential," says Vale.

Their strategies for making the Sterling more profitable?

Scaling back "an overburdened payroll," for one thing. Vale says they also have the advantage of managing a single property, instead of juggling three, as Wasserman did.

After 20 years with the Sterling, Wasserman will focus solely on operating the Vizcaya Pavilion events center at 2019 21st St. and the adjoining nine-room Vizcaya Mansion B&B.

Vale says many people have been dropping by the Sterling and "sharing memories," since word went out that the 13th and H streets hotel might be closing.

"This is a grand old lady of Sacramento," says Vale of the 1890s former boardinghouse, "and people love it."

Deal 'em: Playing poker for a living isn't all that glamorous. The hours are awful. Losing money – lots of it – isn't unusual.

That "gritty reality" is what local video producer Leslie Simmons aimed to capture in the pilot episode of "Poker Trips," a reality TV show that she and husband Jim are creating.

The couple, owners of midtown's SIMZ Productions Inc., mostly do training videos for corporate clients. The poker show, a more ambitious undertaking, is being pitched to several cable networks.

It follows the adventures of three, convivial Sacramento-area guys who gamble nearly full time. Serious poker players will love the tourney footage. Regular viewers will like the players' distinctive personalities, plus segments with their families and friends.

The 30-year-old producer says the show will be "edgy and fast-paced."

If the first episode is any indication, it won't romanticize the players' lifestyles.

The guys attend a tournament in Reno. All lose big. They get depressed and angry.

"It was pretty dark," Simmons says of the pilot. But she contends the underlying theme is upbeat: "You have to follow your passion."

Royal abode: Kings owner Gavin Maloof has a very nice home about a mile from Arco Arena.

But it's nothing like his Sin City mansion, pictured in a recent issue of Vegas magazine.

The two-story, 14,000-square-foot palatial home wraps around a massive L-shaped pool (with an underwater Kings logo on the bottom).

There's a theater, a massage center and a "Marilyn Monroe" room with a framed dress once worn by the movie starlet.

Another room has a platform displaying Gavin's $40,000 custom-built El Diablo II motorcycle with a leather seat inlaid with stingray hide.

The two garages provide ample room for his car collection: a Bentley Continental GTC, two Lamborghini roadsters and a Ford Shelby Cobra.

The $10 million home, acquired last year, is a fabulous place. We don't resent a minute of the time that Maloof spends in Vegas.

As long as he leaves his ballclub right where it is.

Reach Bob Shallit at (916) 321-1049. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/shallit.