The first non-Hold’em offering of the Festival is now underway. Like all the non-Hold’em events the buy-in is €300+€30 and there are ten levels for late registration. Players start with 30,000 chips.

One question which is probably on the minds of a few players reading this is “what the heck is Sviten?” 

Sviten Special, to give it its full name, is also known as Drawmaha. It is a split pot poker format which combines Five Card Omaha with Five Card Draw. After the flop, players can exchange any number of the five hole cards, with the caveat that if they only exchange one card, they are dealt it face up and can choose to keep it or receive another card face down instead.

The game was invented in Sweden by Anders Bengtsson and is named after the club in which it was first played. It is a popular format throughout Scandinavia and its popularity is spreading. Malta is one of the few places that it is regularly played and often features on the tournament schedules of poker festivals here.

The tournament started at 5pm and they are now starting the 2nd level of the day.