The latest in rocker-owned bars opened Friday night, with The Playground’s Rock Room giving way to Dead Man’s Hand. The joint, co-owned by Scott Ian and Jerry Cantrell got things started Friday with Kerry Simon and — showing up late, as always — Phil Hellmuth in the crowd to hear John Dolmayan hit the stage.

Dolmayan did a brief set on the kit with his band Indicator before Scars on Broadway guitarist Franky Perez got on stage to kick out System of a Down’s “Lonely Day” and Scars’ “They Say.”

For the second night, it was The Starf**kers with the Stray Cats’ Slim Jim Phantom and Teddy Andreadis, who played keyboards briefly for Guns ‘n Roses. Tera Patrick made the scene, as did former Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul, The Apprentice’s Omarosa, and poker pros Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, Jeff Madsen and Casey Thompson. The full grand opening hasn’t been settled on, but it’s being targeted for later this year.

In just a few more weeks, Ian is going to take over DJ duties on Friday nights in December. This will make the average Friday night 80 percent more metal than your typical Friday evening of sitting at home catching up on How I Met Your Mother reruns.

When you’re already playing guitar for Anthrax, playing pro poker for Ultimate Bet, writing a comic book and helping kick off the Hard Rock Cafe at new Yankee Stadium, why not go ahead and throw “opening a rock club” into the mix?

Scott Ian got together with longtime friend Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains to turn The Playground’s Rock Room into Dead Man’s Hand — which makes its soft opening Friday night. It kicks off with a performance from System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan and friends, then on Saturday brings up a comedy set from Buffet Jackson, Jason Harris and Brandon “Gooch” Hahn from 8 to 10 p.m. before supergorup The Starf**kers hits the stage. Poker pros Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Brandon Cantu and Joe Sebok are expected to be there, as are Vinnie Paul and Tera Patrick. After all that, Ian is going to be doing DJ sets on Friday nights in December.

We talked to die-hard Yankee fan Ian, who did a performance at the Stadium Hard Rock with Ace Frehly in the spring, on the eve of Game 1 of the World Series when he was sweating the Bombers. Now that it’s 3-2 and headed back to the Bronx, we hope he’s not as anxious.

So how did this come about?

Jerry and I have been friends since ’91. We met, Alice in Chains came out on tour with us and we’ve just been friends ever since. Really the genesis of the whole thing was when I started playing poker. A couple years ago when I started getting into playing cards. Jerry said, ‘I’ve had a regular home game at my house for years’. Basically if Jerry was home in L.A., every Wednesday night he would have a card game going on. So he invited me over and I started going over there on Wednesdays. When I got more serious about playing cards I started inviting him out to tournaments and stuff, charity events. It just really kind of came out of conversations of us hanging out and playing cards and being like Wow, wouldn’t it just be great if we had our own spot to just hang out with our friends. We could have a bar and play a little late-night poker and blah, blah, blah.

That space was just remodeled. Are you planning on doing anything different in there?

We’ve been slowly but surely putting our stamp on the things. We’ve done a couple of walkthroughs. I know on the production end of things we had a lot of comments. Specifically on technical shit, like getting rid of the ground support for the lights, flying the lights from the ceiling as well as flying the P.A. from the ceiling. … There’s a lot of stuff we’re adding to it. I just got a couple dozen of these amazing rock ‘n’ roll photos from this photographer Gene Ambo out of Chicago who’s been shooting the rock scene there for 25 years and I’ve known forever. He just sent us some amazing prints, and not stuff you see hanging in the Hard Rock or places like that. You’re going to see Cliff Burton and James Hetfield and Kerry King and Lemmy. It’s going to be a much different vibe.

How much do you anticipate being there?

As much as possible. This isn’t going to be the kind of thing where I sign a deal and I’ll show up my contractual amount of times and hang around and wait to pick up a check every three months. That’s not why I did this. I did this because it’s something I want to do and I want to be involved in. The actual amount of work I’ve taken on in the last three months, I know I’m committed to it because the extra 40 e-mails a day that I actually get to and answer, it’s been pretty crazy. At the same time it’s something I really want to be involved in and I really want to do. I’m going to be there a lot.

Our first soft opening parties are Nov. 6 and 7, and I assume I’m going to be there for that. I plan on being there every Friday DJing in December right now is the plan, and I’ll already have made my quota for a year right there. My attitude is people have an expectation I think with something like this. They see that my name and Jerry’s name is on this place. It’s not like we’re going to be there five nights a week. That would be impossible. But at the same time it would be cool if people come in and we are there on some type of regular schedule. I really feel like I should show my face there as much as possible.

Have you been into DJing? What do you plan on spinning?

No, the last time I DJd I was playing vinyl. Maybe, who knows, it’s been so long that that’s come back around now for all I know. I’ll be playing basically the music that’s in my iTunes. It’s going to be all hard rock and metal. The whole idea behind this place is that it should be a place that if Jerry and I were to walk in there, any night of the week, we would feel comfortable hanging out in. That was really our biggest concern and our main thing about the whole thing. We just want to know that we can walk in this place and I’m not going to fucking walk in and hear the same stupid mashup DJ bullshit that you can hear at every other place in the world. That’s not what we want to do and that’s not what we want to hear and that’s not what we’re comfortable with. I don’t want it sound like Rehab. I don’t want it to sound like Tao. I can go to those places if I want that scene. This should be an alternative to that. Put it this way, if I do walk in unannounced on a Thursday night and I hear that kind of shit, the shit’s going to hit the fan.

You’ve got a couple of guys like Vince Neil has his bar now, and Sammy Hagar’s opening his place on the strip, and there’s Wasted Space. What do you think about the whole rock club thing and specifically, rockers who are opening up bars in Vegas?

I think it just shows you something that people are looking for an alternative. Not everybody wants to stand in line outside of some giant fancy place that basically is looking to rape their wallet. That’s not what we’re about. We just want a comfortable vibe in a room where people know they can go out and hear killer music and get drinks for a reasonable price. We’re not looking to kill people. I just really think people are looking for an alternative. Certainly, I am looking for an alternative. I’ve been coming to Vegas forever and I don’t go to those places. I’ve been to places like Pure and Tao. Look, it’s just not my vibe. I can’t deal with that level of whatever for more than 45 minutes. It drives me nuts. We’re just looking for a thing that’s much more chill. I just think you’re maybe seeing that across the board. There’s a whole other segment of the population that doesn’t want to go to the place that Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian is hanging out in. There’s a lot of people who don’t watch those TV shows.

What do you think of the new Alice album?

I love it. I think it’s great. I think it’s amazing. What they’ve accomplished and the road Jerry’s taken to get here. To see this finished product, and the songs he wrote, it’s amazing. If he ever writes a book about the last five years of his life, what a great final chapter of this chapter of Alice in Chains. You almost couldn’t write the script any better. To come back with such a strong record, it’s just so killer.

What’s going on with you, in your music projects?

We’re finishing an Anthrax record which we hope will be out springtime or maybe early summer. We’re in the good or bad position, depending on how you look at it, that we really don’t work with deadlines anymore. It’s great on one hand, but on the other hand it kind of sucks because it gives us too much rope to hang ourselves with sometimes. You can keep doing a record for four years. But we’ve been out doing shows too.

It’s kind of hard to say no when you get these calls saying, ‘Do you want to go play this huge festival in Japan? Do you want to do this? Do you want to do that?’ Yeah, we want to do all of it. It’s a good place to be right now after all this time our brand has come back around after 25 years. The brand means so much now to people because so many people never got to see it. People who are this kind of music now who never got to see Anthrax back in the day. There’s a huge demand for stuff that’s been around for a long time. It’s kind of what we’re seeing now. It’s just great for us because we love playing shows.

What bands do you hope to get in there? Do you have anyone tentatively lined up to play Dead Man’s?

We’ve been looking at a lot of different stuff. We’re just trying to figure out what we’re going to do. We’ve been toying with the idea of trying to get some bands in to do residencies on a certain night of the week every week. We just have a lot of balls up in the air. We’re putting all that together. We haven’t really decided when the official grand opening is. We’re doing these two soft opening parties. My attitude is we’ll be able to step back and see how these two nights went and what we need to fix or what went great.

I think we’ll be able to answer a lot of our own questions after these first two things we do Nov. 6 and 7. I’m in no rush. Jerry and I, our attitude is we just want to do this right. If we try and rush and get this place open, then what’s the point of that? If someone comes and they come to the place and it’s not a great experience for them, then they’re not coming back. If we rush, it’s not going to be the experience we want it to be. It took us this long to get this place, there’s no reason to be like we have to open in 24 hours.

OK, seriously, we’re pretty sure it’s turning into a conspiracy. First Vince Neil opens up Feelgood’s on Sahara, then Sammy Hagar is bringing Cabo Wabo to the Miracle Mile Shops. Now Anthrax’s Scott Ian and Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell are teaming up to turn the Rock Room at The Playground into Dead Man’s Hand.

You can scoff all you want, but when you’re lining up in November to vote for Mayor Dave Mustaine on the Megadeth ticket, maybe then you’ll admit we had a point.

Cantrell and Ian will get up to do impromptu sets in the 200-person venue, which was just recently redone in the Playground’s overhaul to give it a lush, dark vibe. Alice in Chains, which put out its first new album since the 2002 death of frontman Layne Staley, Black Gives Way to Blue in September, will be at The Joint inside Hard Rock Cafe Dec. 11. If you’re planning on doing any Cantrell-spotting at Dead Man’s Hand, that’s a good date to have circled on your calendar.

Megan Hauserman sure is tall. And, um, blonde. Yep, tall and blonde that one.

Other than that, we really can’t tell you much about her. Hauserman was at The Playground Friday night to kick off Labor Day activities at the strip club/sushi joint/rock venue/nightclub/hookah bar/transmission shop and she wasn’t exactly forthcoming with answers to any questions about stuff anyone would possibly care about.

So Megan, we hear you might be getting a new TV show?

“I love being on TV and I love my fans and look forward to doing more television projects.”

OK. Is reality television something you want to continue on, or do you feel like you’ve exhausted what you can do there?

“Next question.”

How much time did you spend with Ryan Jenkins?

“Next question.”

OK. What other projects do you have in the future outside of television?

“Next question.”

Really? Really. She said something vague about modeling when pressed, but she wasn’t going any further than that. Something about contracts. All we know is if we were dating a murderer on television for a period of time, we would never stop telling everyone in the world about it. We’d work it into every conversation like a college freshman who just took their first philosophy class and is trying to prove to everyone how smart they are.

“So, do you think the Giants will be able to score this year without Burress?”

“Sure, they have some options at wideout. And it’s not like Plax murdered anyone. You know who did murder someone though?”

“Hey, did you see Inglourious Basterds yet?”

“You mean the movie all about murdering Nazis? Let me tell you a little something about murder …”

“Do you want pizza or Chinese for dinner?”

“MURDER!”

Well, this should be fun for fans of train-wreck reality TV. Megan Hauserman, of the cut-down-in-its-prime Megan Wants a Millionaire and before that I Love Money, Rock of Love, Charm School and Beauty and the Geek (about the only reality show she hasn’t done is Dance Your Ass Off), will be at The newly renovated Playground tonight to kick off their Labor Day festivities.

• Puddle of Mudd is the Friday Night Live concert at the Hard Rock Hotel pool preceded by the SpyOnVegas.com Open Bar.
• Mickey Avalon, Dirt Nasty, Andre Legacy are at Cherry inside Red Rock Resort.
• Body English at the Hard Rock Hotel does Champagne Fridays with DJ Mello-D.
• Hell’s Belles are back at Wasted Space.
• Jet at The Mirage has Shwayze and Cisco
• LMFAO are again at Tao inside The Venetian.
• DJ R.O.B. and DJ Jazzy Jeff hold it down at Rain inside the Palms.
• Regular Jermaine Dupri spins at Prive inside Planet Hollywood Resort.
• Rok Vegas at New York-New York features Vanilla Ice.
• For afterhours, DJ Ross One is in the hip hop room at Drai’s while Chris Garcia has the house room.
• Hawaiian Tropic Zone does Day 2 of Vegas Karaoke Idol.
• Krave has DJ Megafail.
• The Sin City Sinners are at Railhead inside Boulder Station with Randy Piper of W.A.S.P.
• The Playground’s Rock Room has Bonafide.
• Comic Ralphie May is at the South Point.
• Brad Williams, Michael Somerville and Lisa Landry are at the Comedy Stop inside the Sahara.
• Bonkerz at Palace Station has comics Angelo Cianfrocco and Eric Henley.
• Steel Panther is at Ovation inside Green Valley Ranch at 11:30 p.m.
• Cheyenne Saloon (3103 N. Rancho Drive) does Divine Heresy, diM, Broken End and Kill the Masses at 9 p.m.
• The Double Down (4640 Paradise Road) welcomes Back to Zero, Forth Yeer Freshman, The Gods of Macho, The Deep Eynde, E.N. Down and Quint & the Cowpunk Calamity.
• AJ’s Tavern (3650 S. Decatur Blvd.) does Davyo’s Open Mic Comedy at 11 p.m.
• Brass Lounge (425 Fremont St.) goes with Shake and Pop with DJ Mike Attack.
• The Bunkhouse has LMNO, Pan De Sal and Soul Fittin.
• Beauty Bar (517 Fremont St.) does The Get Back.
• The Freakin’ Frog features Kounterfiet Change and The Originators.

California’s Chuck Ragan hits up the Rock Room at The Playground tonight with The Core and Left Standing. He’s an acoustic-y guy, so the chances of your hearing an authentic “Billie Jean” cover in tribute are pretty slim. There’s probably going to be some kind of Michael Jackson tribute installed somewhere, and we just hope it takes the form of a light-up sidewalk.

• Hawaiian Tropic Zone searches for Miss Coors Light at 11 p.m. We’ll be on hand as a judge. Strip Karaoke is on the patio
• Caramel at Bellagio does Fashion Forward.
• Wasted Space at the Hard Rock hotel holds the Thursday Night Ride leading to the Sin City Sinners.
• The SpyOnVegas.com Open bar is at Dixie’s Dam Bar inside Hooters Casino from 6 to 9 p.m.
• Ghostbar at the Palms does Soundbar featuring Groove Junkies and DJ Spinna.
• Revolution Lounge at the Mirage holds A Case of the Classicks with DJ Johnny Fever, Duwoprose the Vinylist and Lord Qs. Hosted by Mr. Freeze.
• Treasure Island’s Mist has Up in Smoke Thursdays with half-price hookahs and beer pong tournaments.
• Rare 120 at the Hard Rock Hotel holds its industry night.
• Diablo’s Cantina brings in Cornerstone and Noise Media Civilian
• Rockhouse does Going Out of Business Thursdays.
• CatHouse inside Luxor features Trnds3trs.
• Lavo at Palazzo has Residance with DJ Chris Garcia.
• Cheyenne Saloon (3103 N. Rancho Drive) does One Side Zero, Shatterance, Solidify, Stickman Shadow and More than Mortal at 7 p.m.
• Krave does Thurstdaze with DJ Sobe.
• Bonkerz at Palace Station brings in comics Tim O’Rourke and Rob Sherwood.
• Frankie’s Tiki Room launches Late Night Cinema. They’re serving popcorn and showing Scarface and Cocaine Fiends at 4 a.m.
• Red Room (3101 W. Sahara Ave.) holds Soul Kitchen.
• Beauty Bar (517 Fremont St.) has Drop Dead Julio.
• Bunkhouse (124 S. 11th St.) welcomes Purple Hearts, The Vinyl Clouds and Bee Movie the Band.
• Resodence is at the Freakin’ Frog.
• Wretched Youth and The F Bombers are at the Double Down.

Goodbye Penthouse Club, hello Playground.

The 40,000-square-foot complex on Russell Road is making itself over as one-stop nightlife shopping with four distinct rooms in the pleasure palace. The Rock Room for live music and Obsession for afterhours clubbing have been in place for several weeks now. The strip club is repositioning itself as Crazy Horse III, and Chef Bruce Lee’s Sushi All Night offers sushi, er, all night.

We sincerely hope the idea takes off and that more restaurants and entertainment venues decide to bring a strip club into the mix. You’ve got to admit, it would really shake things up at Fleur de Lys.

Crazy Horse III will feature access to the VIP room with the purchase of one cocktail and they’ll have a daily open bar from 3 to 9 p.m. for locals with food by Don Antonio’s Pizzeria. Sushi All Night will frun from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. You know, in case you get a hankerin’ for breakfast sushi.