tinhorn gambler

A cheap, small-stakes gambler who boasts and dresses ostentatiously to seem more successful or skilled than they really are. An allusion to the dice game "chuck-a-luck," which features a chute, called a "horn," from which the dice are dispensed. More high-class leather horns were often substituted with makeshift tin ones, and thus cheaper, lower-stakes gamblers were known for their tin horns. He always wears the same three-piece suit and slicks his hair back like he's the Great Gatsby when he comes in to play, but everyone knows he's just a tinhorn gambler who taps out after losing a couple hundred bucks.

An unsuccessful player. In the dice game of chuck-a-luck, backroom players tossed the dice not with their hand but out of a small metal handheld cage called the “horn” (more upscale games used leather horns). Hence, the “tin horn” noun that became the “tinhorn” adjective when applied to nickel-dime gamblers. “Tinhorn” sounds as though it might also refer to a musical instrument, and composer Frank Loesser took advantage of that sound-alike association with “Fugue for Tinhorns” in his musical Guys & Dolls.