In the Poisson limit, we take a series of [independent] Bernoulli trials (giving rise to a binomial distribution) and allow the number of coin flips N to increase without bound while allowing the chance p of success on a particular coin flip to decrease without bound in such a compensatory fashion that the average number of successes ("heads") is unchanged. Because the likelihood of "heads" on any given toss decreases without bound, this limit is called the limit of rare events.
