How to display sticky post with custom html

Question

I'd like to display 9 posts and be able to insert a sticky post with its custom html template in between 4th & 5th post. Currently the sticky post gets displayed in both the "sticky container" and regular posts.

have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?>

<?php if ($count <= 9 ){ ;?>

    <article>
      <?php echo get_the_content(); ?>
    </article>

    <?php if ($count == 3) {
        $sticky = get_option('sticky_posts');
        $args = array(
            'posts_per_page' => 1,
            'post__in'  => $sticky,
            'ignore_sticky_posts' => 1
        );
        query_posts($args);

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

            if($sticky[0]) { ?> 
              <article>
                <h1>CUSTOM HTML</h1>
                <?php echo get_the_content(); ?>
              </article>
            <?php
            } 
            endwhile; else:
        endif;
        wp_reset_query();

    }?>
<?php } $count++; ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>

Answer 1

Your code looks odd to me, typically to insert something between posts you add a counter and count each loop, then add custom code on a particular count, this is for the main loop, for a non main loop or secondary loop us wp_query.

<?php if (have_posts()) : ?>
<?php $count = 0; ?>

<?php query_posts( 'posts_per_page=9' );?>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

<?php $count++; ?>

<?php if ($count == 4) : ?>

 // Your custom sticky post and html goes here

<?php else : ?>

 // the regular loop code goes here such as the below

<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>

<?php endif; ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

Answer 2

try to exclude the sticky post in the main loop:

global $query_string;
parse_str( $query_string, $args );
$args['post__not_in'] = get_option('sticky_posts'); 
query_posts( $args );