{"id":313788,"date":"2019-12-11T06:00:45","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T20:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=313788"},"modified":"2019-12-11T06:00:45","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T20:00:45","slug":"four-of-a-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/four-of-a-kind\/","title":{"rendered":"Four of a Kind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cNo one knows why he advances as well as he does or could expect that laughable croak to work in so many circumstances.\u201d<br \/>\n<strong>\u2014from a short poem by Kay Ryan, US poet laureate, 2008 \u2013 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>By the time you read this, I will be in a snow-covered Buddhist monastery in the mountains of South Korea or somewhere in the northern Mojave Desert between a rock and a hard place. For medical reasons I will spend some time under doctor\u2019s care. I will miss the sea of blue, the sea of stars, and all of you, my heart is true, feeling a little blue. I\u2019ll be back either in a box of ashes or with lucky gambling cashes. I\u2019ll send poems from time to time as long as I can remember how to use a computer and rhyme. Love to you all, long life and laughter! Isn\u2019t that what we all are after? Peace.<\/p>\n<p>These four poems are dedicated to Tommy \u201cNumbers\u201d Henderson, a Nevada casino dealer on the Colorado River for 13 years. Tommy has the wit of Will Rogers and the humor and wisdom of Mark Twain. He\u2019s great storyteller and I\u2019m proud to say he is a lifelong friend from Elmira, NY. He went back home a few years ago and may have finally found his own El Dorado gold mine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pit Boss Colossus<\/strong><br \/>\nWho is on next shift<br \/>\nand tomorrow night<br \/>\nhope its that\u00a0<br \/>\nfunny old timer<br \/>\nhe supposedly knows<br \/>\na thing or three<br \/>\nabout hold em<br \/>\nand pai gow poker<br \/>\nhe knows how<br \/>\nto get rid of\u00a0<br \/>\nloud losers and whiners<br \/>\ngets em up and away<br \/>\nto free buffet diners<br \/>\nwish he was on now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hold \u2019Em or Fold \u2019Em <\/strong><br \/>\nNo Dice Advice<br \/>\nOn the river<br \/>\nColorado casino<br \/>\ndealer delivers<br \/>\njackpot not<br \/>\nat the table\u00a0<br \/>\npots getting bigger<br \/>\nnewcomer wins<br \/>\ngo figure<br \/>\nin the pot\u00a0<br \/>\nsalary for a week<br \/>\nfeeling hot<br \/>\nno need to speak<br \/>\nno sweat<br \/>\nraise the bet.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Big Whale Fail Going to the Rail<\/strong><br \/>\nYou hoped to<br \/>\ncatch a royal card<br \/>\nstayed in too long<br \/>\nin big pot games<br \/>\na river Ace<br \/>\na poker face<br \/>\nthings went wrong<br \/>\nyou had a few<br \/>\nhands and brew<br \/>\nand figured out<br \/>\nthe new tells<br \/>\nright away<br \/>\npossible flush<br \/>\nlet\u2019s play.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kings Pair and Ladies Dare<\/strong><br \/>\nYour Kings<br \/>\npromising things<br \/>\none has a heart<br \/>\nprobable start<br \/>\nhis Queens<br \/>\nlooking good<br \/>\na royal flush<br \/>\ndream understood<br \/>\nthen the draw<br \/>\nlast hand<br \/>\nlosing all night<br \/>\non the river\u00a0<br \/>\ngot it made\u00a0<br \/>\nKing a spade.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joey &#8216;Pepe Batbon&#8217; Connolly (Special to the Saipan Tribune)<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Joey \u201cPepe Batbon\u201d Connolly is a retired teacher and has been named a poet laureate of Tinian. He has taught English in CNMI public schools for the past 30 years. He has also taught in Alaska, New Orleans, and Las Vegas.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cNo one knows why he advances as well as he does or could expect that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,304,5148,320],"class_list":["post-313788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-cnmi","tag-las-vegas","tag-new-orleans","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}