The Festival Series Explains: Sviten Special

Sviten Special is typically played with a pot-limit betting structure (similar to Pot-Limit Omaha) and this is one of the ways in which it differentiates itself from Drawmaha, which is popular in poker rooms in the USA, but usually with a limit betting structure.

Even though Sviten Special is usually played for quite small stakes, it creates a lot of action and very big pots often occur.

History of Sviten Special

Sviten Special originated in Sweden and expanded into Finland and the rest of Scandinavia before gradually gaining popularity across Europe. Its origins date back to the early 2000s when a poker player called Anders Bengtsson opened a poker club in Stockholm called The Sviten Club. This was a regular poker club and most of the enjoyed playing Texas Hold’em, which had already established itself as the dominant poker variant by then. 

The Sviten club started off in a small venue, catering to a small group of no more than 15 regular players. However the club grew in popularity and moved to larger premises more than once, before it closed down in 2007. But before it shut its doors for good, it had given birth to a poker variant that now immortalises the club that it was named after.

Last October Anders, who is better known in the Swedish poker community as Bengan, spoke to The Festival about the invention of Sviten. Bengan explained that he invented  Sviten Special in 2004. The Sviten poker club had many who liked to play mixed games and one night, with just four players left playing, Bengan proposed a game that ended up becoming Sviten Special. Combining five card draw and Omaha, the game was so well received that they decided to play it again the next day. As a new game it sparked the curiosity of other and the game quickly became a firm favourite within the club.

Rules of Sviten Special - How to Play

Setup

• Players: 2-8 players.
• Deck: Standard 52-card deck.
• Blinds: Small blind and big blind are posted by the players to the left of the dealer.

Dealing

1. Each player is dealt five hole cards, as per five card draw.
2. A round of betting begins, starting with the player to the left of the big blind.

Community Cards

3. After the initial betting round, three community cards are dealt face-up on the board (the flop). Note that you don't need to burn a card in Sviten.
4. Another round of betting takes place

Drawing

5. Each player then has the option to discard any number of their hole cards and draw new ones from the deck, aiming to improve their hand. Players must declare the number of cards they will discard before they are replaced by the dealer.
6. If a player chooses to draw more than one card, the new cards are dealt face down, so only the player receiving them can see their values.
7. However if a player chooses to draw only one card, it is dealt face up and the recipient can choose to keep it, or replace it with another card, which is dealt face down.
8. Following the draw, a fourth community card is dealt (the turn).
9. Another round of betting takes place.

Final Round

10. A fifth community card is dealt (the river).
11. The final round of betting occurs.

Showdown

As it is a split pot game, half of the pot is awarded to the best Five Card Draw hand and the other half to the best Omaha hand that can be constructed. As per regular Omaha, players must use precisely two cards from their hand and three of the community cards to make a qualifying Omaha hand.

Sviten Special Popularity

Having originally found a player base in Sweden, the game then began to export itself. It was discovered by traveling players from Finland, who then began playing it in poker clubs and private games in Helsinki. It was not long before it became popular amongst poker communities throughout Scandinavia. 

The Festival is also responsible for spreading the knowledge of the game. The Cash Games Festival, which gave birth to The Festival Series brand had been holding events throughout Europe and introduced Sviten Special to poker communities in Malta and central Europe. Sviten usually features on the opening days of The Festival Series and has also been added to the rotation of the popular mixed game H.O.R.S.E, which transforms into H.O.R.S.E.S. adding Sviten Special as a sixth game.

Optimal Strategy

As Sviten Special is a split pot game, you have to be very careful about which hands you start with. Ideally you want a hand that has the possibility of scooping (winning both halves of the pot), which is not easy, but at the very least you want to start with hands that have have a high chance of winning half the pot.

The best hands to start with to have a reasonable chance of winning both halves of the pot include straights and two pairs, as these are already strong hands for the draw pot and have chances to take down the Omaha as well.

Experts of Sviten have pointed out that while most players will be going for the Omaha hand first and the Draw hand second, the better strategy is to try and start with as good a draw hand as possible. This is due to there only being one drawing round, as it’s likely that the best drawing hand will still be winning after the draw has been completed. There is less certainty about Omaha hands staying in front of where they started.

Pre-Flop Strategy

• Starting Hands: Focus on strong starting hands with potential to improve significantly through drawing. High pairs, suited connectors, and high cards are valuable.
• Position: Play tighter from early positions and more aggressively from late positions.

Post-Flop Strategy

• Community Cards: Evaluate how the flop interacts with your hand. Consider both immediate strength and potential draws.

Drawing Strategy

• Draw Wisely: Decide which cards to discard based on the potential to improve your hand. Keep in mind the probabilities of completing your draws.
• Bluffing: Use the drawing round to bluff occasionally, discarding fewer cards to represent a strong hand.

Post-Draw Strategy

• Re-Evaluate: After the draw, reassess your hand strength. Consider how the new community cards may have helped or hindered your opponents.

Final Betting Rounds

• Value Betting: Bet for value if you have a strong hand, aiming to extract maximum value from weaker hands.
• Bluffing: Employ strategic bluffs, especially if the community cards present a convincing story for a strong hand.

General Tips

As with any form of poker, there are key skills that you need to master to become a successful Sviten Special player.  You should always pay close attention to opponents' betting patterns and tendencies. It’s easier to do this when you’re not involved in a pot and a much better use of ive table time than constantly checking your Whats App messages.

Be ready to adjust your strategy based on the dynamics of the table and the tendencies of your opponents. Easier said than done, but if you follow the action on the table rather than watching sports on the poker room TV, you have a great chance to employ winning strategies when you spot leaks in your opponents games.

Perhaps one of the hardest things to successfully achieve in poker is letting go of hand that you really like, even if there’s a good chance it is beaten. Exercising discipline in your hand selection and being willing to fold when necessary is a huge skill to possess for playing Sviten Special, where pots can get very big very quickly.

Similar Poker Games

Sviten is very similar to the already mentioned Drawmaha and there are also reports of a similar game being played in Canada in the 1980s called Celestial Poker.

These games may have developed entirely independently in different locations but it’s also possible that there could have been subconscious knowledge of the other variants when Sviten was created.

Although the games are very similar, there is a rule variations which set Sviten apart from Drawmaha. The variation in Sviten relates to the drawing round, where a different procedure is followed if a player chooses to draw only one card. When Sviten was first played in Stockholm, the one card rule variation did not exist, but was later added.

Celestial Poker, the Canadian game that is almost identical to Sviten Special may also have been the inspiration for bomb pots, which have become popular in recent years. In one reported variant of Celestial Poker, for some hands the betting pattern would change, as each player would have to put an obligatory bet of 5x the usual big blind into the pot, after which the flop is dealt, before the first real round of betting takes place. This is exactly the same procedure for modern day bomb pot cash games.