What does One Trillion US$ look like ?

All this talk about "stimulus packages" and "bailouts"...

A billion dollars...

A hundred billion dollars...

Eight hundred billion dollars...

One TRILLION dollars...

What does that look like? I mean, these various numbers are tossed around like so many doggie treats, so I thought I'd take Google Sketchup out for a test drive and try to get a sense of what exactly a trillion dollars looks like.

We'll start with a $100 dollar bill. Currently the largest U.S. denomination in general circulation. Most everyone has seen them, slighty fewer have owned them. Guaranteed to make friends wherever they go.

A packet of one hundred $100 bills is less than 1/2" thick and contains $10,000. Fits in your pocket easily and is more than enough for week or two of shamefully decadent fun.

Believe it or not, this next little pile is $1 million dollars (100 packets of $10,000). You could stuff that into a grocery bag and walk around with it.

While a measly $1 million looked a little unimpressive, $100 million is a little more respectable. It fits neatly on a standard pallet...

And $1 BILLION dollars... now we're really getting somewhere...

Next we'll look at ONE TRILLION dollars. This is that number we've been hearing so much about. What is a trillion dollars? Well, it's a million million. It's a thousand billion. It's a one followed by 12 zeros.

You ready for this?

It's pretty surprising.

Go ahead...

Scroll down...




Ladies and gentlemen... I give you $1 trillion dollars...

See the little guy in red on the left? Notice those pallets are double stacked.
...and remember those are $100 bills.

So the next time you hear someone toss around the phrase "trillion dollars"... that's what they're talking about.

Results (final tables only)

December 26th 2009: I screwed up a real opportunity here. I came 6th in the PKR Masters 100K Guaranteed for $4000.


December 25th 2009: Nice day today. Came 1st in the PKR $25K Guaranteed for $6900 and 5th in the $18K Guaranteed for $800.


December 23rd 2009: Had a good day! Came 6th on FullTilt for a $580 win and 1st on the PKR $18K Guaranteed for a $5500 win.



October 20th 2009: Oh well! Came 2nd for a $2227 win. Can't complain!

August 20th 2009: Took down the $8500 Guaranteed on FT today for a $2700 win. Quite happy about that since my last win was in December.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Poker

by Poker Penguin

The seven deadly sins will condemn your bankroll to hell!
Read all about it here.

The seven deadly sins are familiar to those of us who had religious education classes at school. But did you also know that they are bad for your poker game?

Let's get right into it:

Pride is the excessive belief in one's own abilities and it has been called the sin from which all others arise. There are few poker mistakes that can't be traced back to pride. Playing above your bankroll - Pride. Trying to buy a pot against fish because you're a tight player - Pride. Fancy Play Syndrome - Pride. Playing hands out of position because you think you can make them work - Pride. Calling down with a beaten hand so people won't think you're weak - Pride. If I could get rid of one fault from my game, it would be pride.

Envy - Envy the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation. I am not Daniel Negreanu, nor am I Phil Hellmuth. No matter how much I envy them their successes, trying to blindly copy them is not the right thing to do. I'm not saying don't try to play like Daniel (or even Phil). Instead, understand *how* Daniel uses his traits to gain his successes. If Joe WSOP comes over the top with J7o, don't you do the same out of envy, in fact you don't do it until you know how and why it worked for him and that it will work for you.

Gluttony - While poker food is pretty sinful in terms of its health effects, that's not the only bad thing about it. Gluttony is a desire to consume more than one needs. In other words, hanging on at the trough too long. Even if it's the fishiest game ever, if you're too drunk or tired to realise that there are three hearts on the board, then you are comitting the sin of gluttony, and your eternal bankroll will suffer.

Lust - There's an obvious joke about not surfing for porn while playing online. I guess the closest I can come to an actual piece of poker advice is that even if she bats her eyelashes at you, you should still check-raise a woman, and especially a "woman" whenever you can get her to semi-bluff into your strong hands. If you're playing poker for money, then everyone is fair game, and should be played hard. Otherwise, you get sloppy.

Anger - The sin of anger is obvious in poker, so too are its negative effects. Anger is the father of tilt. We all know what tilt looks like, even if we can't recognise it in ourselves. When the poker player allows his anger to rule his head, he throws his money away. Thoughts like "I'll teach this jerk a lesson" or "how could he call with 92 off?" are angry thoughts and remove the player from the path of righteousness and profit.

Greed - Ahh sweet greed. Perhaps the second most deadly of the Poker sins. Greed is what makes us play too many hands - blinded by the potential payoff. Greed is what makes us ignore signs we are beaten, and call one more bet. Greed is what makes us check our top set in late position with a two flush on the flop because we want to try for a check-raise. That said, a tempered amount of greed can be a good thing - we wants the precious after all, don't we Gollum?

Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work - If you're pretending to be a (semi)-pro, you've got to work. The serious poker player must work both physically - putting the hours in at the tables, even when Survivor is on TV and spiritually - reading and thinking about their play, working out what their sins are and trying to solve them.

So there, I guess Religious Education class wasn't just a chance to play cards in the back row.

$15 NL 9 man SNG Win Super TURBO (300 chips) at Full Tilt (May 27th 2009)

This is a SUPER TURBO SNG at Full Tilt.
Every player starts with 300 chips and blinds increase every 3 minutes.

$57 Heads Up (May 21st 2009)

Heads up at Pokerstars

This is a quick one: 5 hands

Starting Hands & Behaviour

You might think that starting hand strategy in poker is all about getting big cards and winning with them, but that's only half the story. The other half of the story is avoiding getting yourself into situations where you call down with weak cards.

If you've played poker already, you'll probably nod your head in agreement when you hear this situation:

You're in the Big Blind and you catch top pair on the flop with a weak kicker. A player bets, and you call the flop with your top pair. The player bets both the turn and river, and you call again (even when you really don't want to). When you turn your cards over, you find to your dismay that your opponent has a bigger kicker and wins the pot. You've just been out-kicked! This happens all the time and the key is to let it happen to your opponents - not you!

Remember: Position is extremely important. Sometimes even more important than the cards you are holding.

Position, position, position

Your position at the poker table during a hand should have a big influence on the way you play any hand. Your position can determine how much money you win, or even whether or not you actually win the hand. Position in poker is something that is all too often overlooked by newcomers to the game, and sometimes even by some of the more experienced players. To become a solid player, you have to exercise good poker strategy and use position to your advantage. If you are not always trying to keep aware of your position at the table, then you are leaving a big hole in your game.



Your position in each hand is determined by the placement of the ‘button’. The ‘button’ is the dealer’s seat and all actions must take place one after another in an anticlockwise motion from player to player, starting with the player to the immediate left of the dealer. The group of players that will be the first few to act on each betting round are known as players in ‘early position’, and therefore the players that will be the last few to act on each round are known as the players in ‘late position’. As you might have already guessed, the players in between these two groups are known as players in ‘middle position’. The button is the best seat in the hand because that player will be acting last on every round of the hand, except only for pre-flop.

The players that are in late position have an advantage over the other players at the table because they will be the last to act on every betting round. This means that they are able to see how their opponents act and play their hand before they have to decide how to play their own hand. For example, if a player in late position sees an opponent check before them, they can infer that there opponent has a weak hand, and so they may decide to make a bluff to try and take down the pot. If the positions had been switched around however, the player now in early position will have a harder time trying to run a successful bluff, because they no longer have any information on the strength of their opponent’s hand. Being out of position in any hand can cause many problems, and hinder any good Texas Holdem strategy you might posses.

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When deciding whether or not to enter a pot you should always be considering your position at the table. If you are one of the first to act you have to remember that your opponents will have access to more information about your hand on each betting round, and so will be able to have the greater ability to bluff you off of your hand if you show any weakness. Knowing how to bluff in poker is important, but even more important is knowing when to bluff. If you intend to play a hand from early position, you should make sure it is a premium hand to give yourself the best chance of winning. Consequently, you can loosen up your starting hand requirements in the later positions because you will have the advantage of acting last on each round.