NOIR WEEK: BEHOLD THE DREAMER COMETH

This is the end of NOIR WEEK, when I've been posting a daily poem written in the style of the genre, featuring hard-boiled, cynical individuals in bleak, sleazy settings.
It's been fun for me to revisit these vignettes that I wrote a couple of years ago as a way of combatting writer’s block.
Creating these shady protagonists was a really enjoyable exercise and writing in a voice and style so different from my own was an experience that I suppose must be akin to acting. 
This last guy is Gambler Joe, Joey-Boy, Joseph the Dreamer. 

 JOEY

He plays the dice, bets on the wheel,
backs thoroughbreds that run too slow;
smokes big cigars, says Call Me Joe.
A gambler, sure: you’ve heard the spiel;
he’s ultra-cool; you gotta know
how Easy Street hangs on one throw;
a lucky break will seal the deal,
he’ll get the dame, he’ll win the dough,
the self-deluding Romeo.