Flame out in Tunica

Wow. Disaster. I busted out of the main event in less than three hours in Tunica. It's been so painful that only now can I write about it. The worst part is that there is no one to blame but myself. The month leading up to this event all I did was play limit hold 'em. What the hell was I thinking? Do you play ping pong or racquetball before Wimbledon? This is not to insinuate that I think limit hold 'em is inferior to no limit but rather to point out that my preperation for this trip was lackluster at best. Of course, I ran into a road block no more than 5 hands into the tournament. At my first table were Josh Arieh, Hans 'Tuna' Lund, and Terrance Chan of RPG fame (super nice guy by the way). I haven't been too shy in the past about how I felt about Josh Arieh. At the WSOP the TV cameras picked up him giving me a hard time and he made some comments directed at me that the cameras didn't pick up. I've been the first to say on different forums that I thought Arieh was the best player at the final table (it would've been interesting if he would've won some coin flips towards the end). But, I wasn't planning on becoming buddies with him to say the least. Josh, though, was very nice as we exchanged pleasantries before the tournament. As far as I'm concerned the way he acted at the WSOP is water under the bridge. Oh yeah, back to the tournament. Somewhere around hand 5 Arieh raised my big blind of $50 to $125. I looked down at 3d 4d and decided to call. Arieh pretty much bullied me around at the WSOP so I decided to show him a new Matt Dean. The flop came out K 3 4 rainbow. Ship it! I checked, Arieh bet ($300?), and I raised him to $800. He called. The river was a 9 which I think put two clubs on the board (I should know this but I don't). I led out this time for $1000 which now seems smallish with only bottom two pair. Arieh calls. Of course, the river puts a king on the board and I can only imagine what my face looked like. I wasn't wearing my sunglasses so I'm sure I looked white as a ghost. I check-folded to a $1500 bet by Arieh. As I went to turn my cards over Arieh said, "3, 4?". Well...yeah, Josh....3 4. I wonder if Arieh was up to his old tricks calling for a miracle gutshot with A2 or A5? Oh well, we'll never know. Especially, since I looked as though I saw a ghost and it never, ever crossed my mind to bet the river. I must have gone on tilt because I didn't play very well from there on. I got involved in one pot about an hour into the tournament with 77. The board of JJJ45 was nice but JQ liked it better taking another chunk out of my stack. With blinds so low I shouldn't have been desparate with $4500 in chips but when you are on tilt you want to chase your losses. That's probably why I thought TT was the nuts and ran it straight into AA to end my tournament in about 460th place out of 512. I'm not very proud of my effort. But, I am going to work even harder to improve my game. Results don't just come to you because you think you deserve them.