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Join the Founder of Sviten Special Bengan at The Festival Series Tallinn

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The Festival Series Tallinn is less 🌧️ than a week away at Olympic Park Casino

and the Hilton Tallinn Park from June 27 to July 3.

While the 🌧️ highlight of the festival

is easily The Festival Series Tallinn €550 Main Event, there are also plenty of mixed

game 🌧️ tournaments and even casino-based tournaments like blackjack and roulette events

littered throughout the schedule.

The Festival Series Tallinn kicks off with 🌧️ an event

that will attract many mixed game players with the two-day €330 Sviten Special event on

June 27-28.

Sviten Special 🌧️ founder Anders Bengtsson, also known in the Swedish poker

community as Bengan, will be among the players planning to join 🌧️ the action in the

Sviten Special event and shared with us his enthusiasm, the history of the game, and

more.

“I 🌧️ like it. I love it. I love it so much!” Bengan shared with us about the

two-day Sviten Special Event 🌧️ at The Festival Series Tallinn. “Every time there’s a

Sviten event at any festival, I get so excited. It's so 🌧️ much fun because even though I

know I might not be the inventor of everything, I know. I am sort 🌧️ of the founder of

making Sviten Special popular. And everyone else says I'm the founder in Sweden at

least. So, 🌧️ it's a little bit close to my heart, and now, I'm really, really excited. I

love it so much!”

What is 🌧️ Sviten Special Before we get into the history of Sviten

Special, it is important for you to know the rules. 🌧️ Although in the USA, another

similar variation of the game called Drawmaha, is played as limit poker, the popular

Sviten 🌧️ Special game is played primarily as a pot-limit game throughout Europe with its

origins coming from Sweden. Sviten Special is 🌧️ a mix between Omaha and Five-Card Draw.

Players start with five cards and a round of betting takes place. Another 🌧️ round of

betting takes place after a three-card flop is dealt. Those still in the hand have the

option to 🌧️ draw as many cards as they desire or can opt to stand pat with what they

have. Those that draw 🌧️ cards in either Sviten Special or Drawmaha will receive them face

down in most circumstances to add to their hand 🌧️ without the opponents knowing any of

the cards. There is a small twist when playing Sviten Special as opposed to 🌧️ Drawmaha

when drawing one card. In this case, the dealer exchanges the burnt card with one face

up for the 🌧️ entire table to see. The player can choose whether to add it to their hand

or to ask for a 🌧️ new card, which would be face down. A third round of betting takes

place after a turn is dealt and 🌧️ a final round of betting after the river is dealt. Half

the pot goes to the best five-card draw hand 🌧️ and the other half goes to the best

five-card Omaha hand. Don’t worry if this sounds confusing as it is 🌧️ easier to

visualize. Check out the video to learn more about Sviten Special by a close friend of

The Festival 🌧️ Series and expert Sviten Special player Peter La Terra.

Bengan Begins

Poker Journey in the 80’s

Bengan’s passion for poker began as 🌧️ a teenager in the late

1980’s. This is something this author can relate to as it was the same time 🌧️ frame I

began to play poker as well. This was before the popularity of no-limit hold’em with

stud and draw 🌧️ games dominating the tables throughout the world.

“My friends and I

started playing poker when we were 15-16 years old,” Bengan 🌧️ said. “We were playing

small with today's value of around one cent and we played just about every weekend. And

🌧️ it was so much fun. We didn't know about the big scene, what was played in the United

States or 🌧️ in the other parts of the world. We just knew five-card draw which we played

for many years.”

To many, no-limit 🌧️ hold’em was something picked up thanks to the growth

of online poker and the simplicity of learning the basics of 🌧️ the game. Bengan and his

crew of friends discovered hold’em via a different path also familiar to many. The WPT

🌧️ began to televise in the late 1990’s and Bengan began playing hold’em soon after

that.

Brief History of the Sviten Club

Sviten 🌧️ Special wasn’t on the radar yet, but that

all changed in a couple of years. Bengan began to expand his 🌧️ network and eventually

opened a poker club in the Swedish capital of Stockholm called the Sviten Club in

2003.

The club 🌧️ was initially just a bunch of friends wanting to play with their first

Texas Hold’em tournament attracting 15 runners. The 🌧️ rake from this event allowed Bengan

to reinvest in the Sviten Club which continued to grow and switch venues, each 🌧️ bigger

and nicer than the next before growing into the biggest poker club in

Stockholm.

Despite its growth, Bengan opted to 🌧️ close the club in 2007 but his influence

lives on at many other poker clubs and now casinos around the 🌧️ world thanks to one big

night where Sviten Special was born.

Sviten Special Born on a Wet Night

Bengan shared

that in 🌧️ 2004, mixed games were becoming popular at his growing poker club. Games like

Omaha, Soko, and dealer’s choice games were 🌧️ attracting players while many others were

still enjoying no-limit hold’em.

“One late night, a very wet night, we were four people

🌧️ still playing in Vurra, Liggat, Viet, and myself,” Bengan shared. We just wanted action

games action, action, action games. So, 🌧️ we thought about how to get as much action as

we could. And then I said, ‘Okay, let's play five 🌧️ card and Omaha.’ And we started

playing it was really, really fun. And we didn't have one open card when 🌧️ we first

started playing. This was added later and I think that is a better game actually.”

The

growth of the 🌧️ game was purely a grassroots movement. The players that played the

previous night decided to start the game again the 🌧️ next day. Other players at the

Sviten Club observed that game named after the club and wanted to know more. 🌧️ As the

Sviten Club was the home to many mixed game players, the game picked up

quickly.

Eventually, players in Finland, 🌧️ which also tend to like action games, got wind

of the game during a Finland vs. Sweden poker competition and 🌧️ the game shortly after

spread there as well.

The game can now be witnessed just about anywhere mixed games are

played 🌧️ in Europe. This was in no small part to the traveling Cash Game Festival

introducing the game to many different 🌧️ players. Now, you will often witness Sviten

Special events at many events at Olympic Park Casino with cash games running 🌧️ throughout

every festival. This author also has witnessed in Malta, small buy-in weekly Sviten

Special events at Portomaso, where they 🌧️ also run cash games where they switch up the

rules of Sviten to add even more variety. In Vegas, you 🌧️ will often now also see

Drawmaha cash games, especially during the WSOP when many more poker tourists and

professionals are 🌧️ in town.

The Festival Series €330 Sviten Special though is truly

“special” as it is a rare two-day event with what 🌧️ promises to be a huge prize

pool.

Respect for La Terra

Peter La Terra

Peter La Terra is known as one of the

🌧️ greatest Sviten Special players with a good combination of reads, aggression, and

mastering the more advanced aspects of the game. 🌧️ While, Bengan did dish out some

respect for La Terra, he did want to mention that at times it isn’t 🌧️ all skill for his

friend.

“You can quote me on this,” Bengan said. “Peter La Terra is the most luckiest

dude 🌧️ ever on earth when it comes to Sviten.”

Bengan shortly after shared that La Terra

is a good guy who he 🌧️ hangs out a lot with and does in fact respect his skill.

“I think

Peter ‘Lucky’ La Terra is the best 🌧️ Sviten player,” Bengan said when asked who his top

three Sviten Special players are. “Especially when it comes to tournaments. 🌧️ I think

Jari Virta comes pretty close and, of course, myself.”

We asked La Terra what he

thought about Bengan’s skills. 🌧️ He acknowledged that nobody was perfect but that Bengan

is a solid player.

“He is a good Sviten player,” La Terra 🌧️ said about Bengan. Maybe he

takes one too many chances and a couple of mistakes like most of us.”

Value Your

🌧️ Five-Card Draw Hand

Bengan had one last parting word of advice for newer Sviten Special

players that are unsure of what 🌧️ cards they should be investing in before the

flop.

“Always, always, value your hand by the five-card draw strength,” Bengan

advised.

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