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.
