It was less than a year ago that we introduced you to Yangtze River Number 2, at the time the world’s most expensive dog at $585,500.00 USD.

Now meet a red Tibetan mastiff named Big Splash (“Hong Dong” in Chinese).

An unidentified buyer recently purchased the 11 month old, 3 foot tall, 180 pound dog for a hairy 10 million yuan or about $1.5 million in U.S. dollars.

That works out to:

• $500,000.00 per foot
• $41,666.67 per inch
• $8,333.33 per pound
• $520.33 per ounce of dog.

You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em
Know when to fold ‘em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run

But if you’ve invested in British designer Geoffrey Parker’s world’s most expensive poker set you’ve also got to know not to lose them or you just might be out £4.4 million or about $7.5 million USD.

So what does £4.4 million get you?

Well, the set includes 4 platinum plated decks of cards,A large 18 karat white gold dealer button set with two rows diamonds on the edge, 384 18 karat solid white gold chips embedded with stingray skin.

The chips come in four colors, the blue chips are encrusted with sapphires, the red chips with rubies,the green with emeralds and the black with black diamonds. All in all the chips are home to some 22,364 stones amounting to 1,012 carats and made of 12.5 kilos of white gold. And if that’s not enough, then entire set comes in a fancy alligator skin case.

Every gambler knows
That the secret to survivin’
Is knowin’ what to throw away
And knowin’ what to keep
‘Cause every hand’s a winner
And every hand’s a loser
And the best that you can hope for
Is to have some of these chips

Greece is well known for olives and since olive oil comes from olives, it only makes sense that Speiron Co. from Athens, Greece would come out with the world’s first luxury and most expensive olive oil.

Meet Lambda olive oil whose brand name originates from the Greek word λάδι (ladi) which means olive oil in Greek.

This “Ultra Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil” won the Silver World Medal at the New York Festival Awards in 2008. It is hand extracted and cold pressed from Koroneiki olives, from a region known for its extremely rich soil.

So if you want to get your hands on this slippery cooking ingredient you’ll have to contact your local upscale gourmet store or luxury-chic hotel and be prepared to shell out $50.00 USD for 500 ml. glass bottle or $200.00 USD if you want it in a special gift box.

It’s been exactly 10 months since we brought you the world’s most expensive rectangle and now we bring you the world’s most expensive iPad 2……almost.

This time instead of looking for some diamond encrusted piece of bling that almost no one could afford and even less would want, we decided to compare retail pricing across the globe and maybe get some insight into who Steve Jobs likes or doesn’t.

Since Steve is American it is no wonder that citizens of the U.S. can buy the iPad 2 for the lowest retail price in the world; $499.99. and with the declining U.S. dollar it seems to be a better deal every day.

You could argue that Steve does not care much for Hong Kong as if you want the latest iPad version it’ll set you back the equivalent of $1,900.00 but bear in mind it hasn’t yet been officially released there yet.

Seems the real poor folk that have made Steve’s naughty, not nice list reside in Denmark where the same iPad will set them back the equivalent of $702.00 , almost 30% more than in the U.S.

So to you Steve Jobs: skål.

Marriage is about the most expensive way for the average man to get laundry done.

• Burt Reynolds