Top two things not to do at a final table

Friend of The Muck, Alex Outhred, is still in the main event of the WSOP heading into day five with 189 left. (Last time we posted about Alex he was simply a former co-worker, now he's our friend. Stay tuned as our relationship grows more intimate the closer he gets to the $9,000,000).

But when "The Insider" made the final table at the WPT Mandalay Bay stop in 2006 he made two classic mistakes that we as veterans of over a hundred televised finals knew doomed him to defeat. We offer them here so that you may benefit from Alex's ill fortune:

1) Do not buy a suit the morning of the final table. You will not win.

Alex raced out the morning of the Mandalay Bay and purchased a beautiful suit (Burberry, very nice). But unless you are Nancy Todd Tyner spending your morning power shopping is a terrible way to focus. It happend to Phil Ivey at the 2003 WPT World Championship (new suit, third place) and Haralabos Volugaris (2005 LAPC, new suit, second place) and Steve Sung (2007 WPT Spanish Championship, new suit, fourth place) . Buy all means wear a suit if that's your style (I'm looking at you, Marcel Luske) but know that if your shot at a million dollars starts in two hours and some guy is on his knees measuring your inseam and asking if you want cuffs you will lose.

2) Do not worry about where your friends will sit. You will not win.

This happens all the time. The classic example is Steve Brecher at the 2004 WPT World Championship when he was so concerned that his mother would not get a seat in the Fontana Lounge that we could barley get him to sit down and play (and then he barely played, busting on hand number three). Alex, for his part, was overly concerned his fiancee would not get seated and therefore was doomed.

Know this. The televison people want your family in the audience more than you do. We want that shot of the mom, girlfriend, grandfather. We need that shot. We will make sure they get seated. Worry about Gus Hansen on your left, not if your Mom can see.

News you can use. Meanwhile, go Alex. My brother.