Sviten Special Soaring In Popularity

In The Beginning…

Sviten Special is the result of experimentation by Anders “Bengan” Bengtsson and friends, who were playing at The Sviten Club in Stockholm, Sweden’s capital. In 2004, with only four players remaining at the club one evening, Bengtsson proposed a new game that would combine elements of Five Card Draw and Omaha. It was an instant hit. The game quickly became a favourite at The Sviten Club, and its popularity grew as more players were introduced to its unique format, which offered an exciting blend of familiar mechanics and strategic possibilities.

The game is a split-pot game, with half the pot going to the best PLO hand (two cards in hand, three from the board), and the other half going to the best five-card draw hand (five cards in hand). Also featured is a draw phase, which occurs on the flop after the round of betting. Players have the option to stand pat, taking no cards, or drawing 1-5 new cards. If players opt to discard one card, they receive one card face up. They can choose to accept or decline this card. If they decline, they receive one more card face down. This is unique to Sviten, and the open draw aspect is not present in its transatlantic cousin, Drawmaha. The other main difference is that Sviten Special is played under a Pot Limit structure, while Drawmaha uses a Fixed Limit structure.

Sviten Special quickly spread beyond the confines of The Sviten Club. Finnish players visiting Stockholm were introduced to the game and brought it back to Helsinki, where it gained traction in local poker clubs and private games. The game’s appeal among mixed game aficionados facilitated its adoption throughout Scandinavia, with Sweden and Finland serving as the primary hubs of early activity. The closure of The Sviten Club in 2007 did not diminish the game’s momentum; instead, it had already established a strong foundation within the regional poker community.

The Games Ambassadors

Sviten Special developed a core group of players and advocates for the game early on. Bengtsson has given numerous interviews over the years to spread awareness and share his knowledge and strategy on the game. This poker writer was lucky enough to share the table with him at The Festival Sviten Special Weekend in Tallinn, and he was kind enough to talk to me about his beloved game, which you can read here. As well as the game’s creator, Bengtsson, his compatriot and founder of The Festival Series and Sweden’s Number 1 Brad Pitt lookalike, Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk, has been pivotal in the game’s ongoing success.

“Franke” has included Sviten Special at all of his Festival Series stops since its inception in 2021, and has been included in The Festival’s marquee Mixed Game events, the €550 Mixed Game Main Event HORSES, which then became the TORSES Main Event. Before that, the Mixed Game enthusiast introduced Sviten Special to the world through his first foray into poker, the Cash Game Festival in 2018. “Franke” has been instrumental in attracting newcomers to the game, offering affordable tournaments for players of all bankrolls. It has been a successful inclusion in his Festival Series, and he has hosted two of the three largest fields assembled in Sviten Special tournaments worldwide. He will be gunning to make that three out of three this year with an expanded Festival Series schedule.

Along with Franke, Englishman Martin Smith has also been a strong advocate for the game. He authored the book “Pot Limit Sviten Special: A European Version of Drawmaha” back in 2020, and it is a great starting point for beginners and players looking to improve their game. Peter La Terra is another Sviten Special expert in both cash game and tournament formats, and he worked closely with the Cash Game Festival to promote Sviten.

Still Yet to Peak?

Sviten Special has been included on the schedule of Europe’s longest-running poker series, the prestigious Irish Open, where it will debut this year as a €350 Championship event on March 27th. This marks a potentially massive moment in the history of Sviten Special, as the popularity of the Irish Open can’t be understated. Thousands of players will be making their way to Dublin, and a good chunk of them will be taken in by the allure of the increasingly popular game. With the buy-in set at a reasonable price, it would be no surprise to see the event attract 100 or so entrants on its first outing in the Irish capital.

Sviten Special found a home on the WSOPC in the Baltic states, with Tallinn hosting the first Sviten Special Ring Event back in 2025. This is a significant milestone, as being associated with serious hardware like a Circuit Ring attracts new players and incentivises established players to get involved in the search for Sviten Special supremacy.

The creator himself believes the game has more space to grow, and is bullish on the prospect of Sviten Special and the Mixed Game scene in general, saying, “Yes, I think so, and Franke is doing a great job spreading it, but the poker world has also gone a little bit more to mixed games. It’s not only Texas; Badugi and Badaceyi are growing here as well. So this is part of the new poker scene, I think, these kinds of games.”

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, Sviten Special will debut at the APT in Taiwan this year, partly in thanks to Riku Koivurrine. The Finnish Mixed Game enthusiast attended APT last year and made the case for the game’s inclusion in the next APT. Clearly, Neil Johnson, President of the Asian Poker Tour, agreed with Koivurrine’s proposition, as they decided to include it in the upcoming event.

Biggest Sviten Special Tournaments

As expected, Scandinavia has dominated Sviten Special tournaments. Despite originating in Sweden, it is their Finnish neighbours that have found most success at the tables. Ville Keränen has won two of the three biggest events to date. Riku Koivurrine came close to holding the accolade of winning the two largest Sviten Special tournaments, as Keränen bested him at The Festival Bratislava in November 2025.

Rank	Event	Entries	Winner	1st Prize
1	€250 Sviten Special – The Festival Bratislava 2025	131	Ville Keränen	€5,826
2	€250 Pot-Limit Sviten – WSOPC Tallinn 2024	127	Riku Koivurinne	€6,110
3	€100 Sviten Special Main Event – The Festival Weekend Tallinn 2025	122	Ville Keränen	€2,500
4	€555 Sviten / Drawmaha Ring Event – WSOPC Tallinn 2025	113	Jarkko Suokas	€14,035
5	€350 Sviten Special – The Festival Malta 2025	101	Martin Schamaun	€8,001
6	€250 Sviten Special – The Festival Rozvadov 2025	61	Toomas Maekikokko	€3,990
7	€250 Sviten High Roller – The Festival Weekend Tallinn 2025	54	Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk	€3,742
8	€220 Sviten Special – The Festival Weekend Bratislava 2021	37	George Sandford	€2,870

Final Thoughts

Sviten Special is primed to continue growing, and it will be no surprise to see more tournaments added to poker series schedules worldwide. With its popularity steadily increasing across Europe and now with an introduction to Asian players at the upcoming APT, everything is in place for this great game to continue to blossom and attract new players to the Mixed Game scene. Here is a look at how the games’ field sizes have grown over the years.

Based on this exponential growth, one thing is certain: Sviten Special is here to stay, and it would be no surprise to see the current record of 131 entrants be eclipsed over the course of this year.

That’s all for now, folks. Until next time.