Haven't had enough? Just step this sway Pub that never closes: Pyrmont Bridge Hotel. They are the 500 steps to circumventing the Premier's new alcohol laws. Five hundred and four, to be precise. Barry O'Farrell announced this week that, by the stroke of 1.30am, all bars inside a vaguely paw-shaped zone on a map, will be forced to close their doors. 24-hour licence: Shelbourne Hotel. All over soon-to-be-demarcated Sydney, drinkers and publicans are asking about these dividing lines and how they might change its nightlife. "The value of this place just went up exponentially," said Chris Hudson, at the tail-end of some extended after-work drinks at the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel an old three-storey pub that never closes. Just six minutes and 504 steps across the eponymous bridge lies the Shelbourne Hotel, an old four-storey pub that also has a 24-hour licence. But because it lies on the southern fringe of the CBD, the Shelbourne will soon be turning patrons away at 1.30am. Those who are denied face a walk congenial to even the wobbliest drunk, down a bridge bisecting the harbour, lined by street lamps and recently denuded of those tricky monorail pylons. Anomalies can be found on either side of dividing lines everywhere. The Crystal Palace Hotel, west of Central Station, is now in serious danger of losing its status as the inner city's pre-eminent last-chance saloon. Bar Broadway, less than 300 metres down the road, will escape the restrictions. (The state opposition pointed out what it says are serious inconsistencies in exemptions that could be granted under the O'Farrell plan for accommodation providers. Establishment on George Street could be exempt, they say, because of rooms on its top floor. The place's diminutive - the "stab" - is no misnomer: it has been named one of Sydney's most violent venues.) Some publicans welcome the business but worry about a new kind of 6 o'clock swill, where people cram as many drinks as they can before 3am and then go looking for more. "We're on the side that you want to be on," said Luke Sullivan, the licensee of the Unicorn on Oxford Street. But I'm worried that there will be an increase in the troublesome patrons. People are going to get as much into them as they can [before leaving]. Residents in this area are going to be worried about a whole heap of people who don't regularly come [here]. But there are also plenty of benign reasons for branching out. "By the time I've finished work, it's 2am," said Daniel Morralee, who works in hospitality and was drinking at the Shelbourne. If you want to have a beer with your mates you're going to find the 24-hour place. "One [am] can come up pretty quick" said Damon Ohlman, who works in IT and admits his appetite for partying waned years ago. If there's not a big geographical barrier, people will go elsewhere. The Premier's office said any proposed legislation would be flexible enough to expand the restrictions if new precincts were hit by drunken crime or violence.