post_not_in

Hey guys,

Trying to get the post_not_in to work on a page that utilises related posts. So i can get the related posts displayed according to specific tags from the original post, it appears to work with the code I have, but I run into the into the issue of having the original post in the related posts section. Here is my code for displaying a single post:

<?php
/*
Single Post Template: event
*/
?>
<?php get_header(); ?>

<?php
global $post;

 if ( have_posts()) : while(have_posts()) : the_post();

 $link= get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'Company Link',true);
 //$tags=wp_get_post_tags(the_post()->ID);//get array of tags
$tags = get_the_tags();

?>

<h2 class="page-title"><?php the_title();?></h2>
          <div id="post_content" class="post_content" role="main">
            <article class="type-post hentry">
              <div class="post-info">
                <div class="post_date">From: <?php echo get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'Event Day Start',true);?> <?php echo get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'Event Month Start',true);?> <?php echo get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'Event Year Start',true);?> to <?php echo get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'Event Day End',true);?> <?php echo get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'Event Month End',true);?> <?php echo get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'Event Year End',true);?></div>
               <a href="post-standart.html" class="post_format"></a> <a href="<?php echo get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'Comapny Link',true);?>" class="comments_count"><?php echo get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'Comapny Link',true);?></a>
              <div class="post_views"></div>
              </div>
              <div class="pic post_thumb"> <?php the_post_thumbnail(); ?> </div>
              <div class="post_content">
                <?php the_content(); ?>
              </div>
            </article>
            <div id="post_author">
              <h3>Location: <span style="font-weight:normal;"><?php echo get_post_meta(get_the_ID(),'Event Location',true); ?> </span></h3>
              <div class="photo"><img alt="" src="<?php print IMAGES; ?>/Link.jpg"/> </div>
              <div class="extra_wrap">
                <h4><a href="<?php echo $link; ?>" target="_blank"><?php echo $link; ?></h4></a>
                <div class="description"></div>
              </div>
            </div>

			<div id="recent_posts">
              <h3 class="section_title"> Related Articles </h3>
               <?php include(locate_template('related-posts.php'));//pass tags into related posts ?> 

            </div>

				<?php endwhile;//Mainloop while end
					endif;//Mainloop if end
             wp_reset_postdata(); //
          ?>

	</div>

	</div>
</div>

<?php get_footer();
?>

and here is my related posts template. Note that i used:
include(locate_template('related-posts.php')); in order to use all variables available in the single post.

Related Posts:

<?php           $args=array('tag_in'=>$tags,
							'post_not_in'=>$post->ID,
							'post_per_page'=> 4,
							'ignore_sticky_posts'=>1,
							'post_type'=>array('events','news_article','opinions'));
				$rel_pst=get_posts($args);
				$count = 0;
				if($tags){
				foreach($rel_pst as $rel):setup_postdata($rel);//Loop through and find related posts
				if($count==4)
				{
					break;
				}
				$image = wp_get_attachment_image(get_post_thumbnail_id($rel->ID),'related-posts');
				//$tagy=$tags[$count];
				//Counts iterations to place aricles on seperate sides 

				 if (($count  == 0)||($count == 2)){// first article start
					echo '<div class="posts_wrapper">';
					echo '<article class="item_left">';
				}
				if(($count == 1)||($count == 3)){// second article start
				 	echo'<article class="item_right">';
				 	}
				 ?>
                  <div class="pic"> <a href="<?php echo get_permalink($rel); ?>" class="w_hover img-link img-wrap"> <?php echo $image; ?></a> </div>
                  <h3><a href="<?php echo get_permalink($rel);?>"><?php echo substr(get_the_title($rel),0,12); ?></a></h3>
                  <div class="post-info"> <a href="<?php echo get_permalink($rel);?>" class="post_date"><?php echo get_the_tags($post->ID) ?></a> <a href="<?php echo get_permalink($rel); ?>" class="comments_count"></a> </div>
                </article>
                <?php if(($count == 1)||($count == 3)){//second article/4th end
                	echo '</div>';
              		  }
               $count ++;
                endforeach;
 				}

Please let me know if my approach was done correctly and what I can do to improve this.

Thanks 🙂