Sviten Special

Drawmaha, except a one-card draw comes face up

Same game as Drawmaha: five hole cards, a flop, one draw, a turn, a river, and the pot split between the best five-card high hand (your own five cards) and the best Omaha high hand (exactly two hole cards plus exactly three board cards). Nothing about either half changes.

What changes is how the draw is dealt. If you replace exactly one card, your new card is turned face up so the whole table sees it. You can keep it or reject it. If you reject it, it’s discarded and you get the next card face down, and that one is yours.

That’s the entire rule. It’s what makes the game “Sviten Special” instead of plain Drawmaha, and it’s the version you’ll find at European festivals, usually played pot-limit.

30-second cheat sheet

• Five hole cards, betting, three-card flop, betting.
• One draw. Replacing two or more cards: new cards come face down, as usual.
• Replacing exactly one card: the new card is dealt face up. Keep it, or reject it and take the next card face down. PokerNews says that second card is forced.
• Then turn, betting, river, betting.
• Half the pot: best five-card high hand, from your own five final cards only.
• Half the pot: best Omaha high hand, exactly 2 hole cards + exactly 3 board cards.
• Usually pot-limit; fixed-limit is played too. There’s no qualifier, and one player can scoop.

Full rules

The deal and first round

Blinds, five cards face down each, betting round. Nothing special yet.

The flop

Burn, three-card flop, betting round.

The draw

Each player says how many cards to replace. The draw cap and whether the turn comes before or after the draw cards follow whatever Drawmaha rules the table uses (this page’s baseline is the WSOP’s 1 to 3 cards or stand pat, with the turn dealt first; see the Drawmaha page for the disagreements).

• Two or more cards: the replacements are dealt face down.
• Exactly one card: the dealer turns the replacement face up. Now you choose:
  • Keep it. It’s your fifth card.
  • Reject it. It goes to the muck, and you receive the next card face down and must keep it.
• Zero cards: you stand pat.

Everyone watches the face-up card, and everyone sees whether you kept it. That makes a one-card draw far more transparent than in plain Drawmaha.

The turn, river, and showdown

Turn, betting, river, final betting round.

Draw half. The best five-card high hand from your own five final cards. Ordinary high rankings, board ignored.

Omaha half. Exactly two of your five cards plus exactly three board cards, best high hand.

One player holding both scoops. Ties split their half. PokerNews doesn’t mention odd chips; if you’re in a WSOP-style room, odd chips go to the first player clockwise from the button.

Rooms disagree

• Whether the second card is forced. PokerNews says if you reject the face-up card, you must keep the next one. PokerListings and Card Player Lifestyle describe the keep-or-reject choice but don’t say whether the next card is forced. This page uses PokerNews.
• Origin. PokerNews says Anders “Bengan” Bengtsson devised the game in 2004 in a short-handed mixed game in Sweden. SwC Poker says it was invented at the Sviten poker club in Stockholm in summer 2006. The two dates conflict, and no source reconciles them.
• Is Sviten the original game, or a variant? SwC Poker treats “Sviten” as the original name of Drawmaha. Card Player Lifestyle lists Sviten Special as a Drawmaha variant. In the Baltics and Nordics, Sviten is just what the game is called.
• WSOP rules. The WSOP’s Drawmaha rules don’t include the one-card-open rule.
• Players. No source gives a player limit for Sviten itself. Six-handed events have been run, and the stub limits are presumably the same as Drawmaha’s (an inference).

Worked examples

Kept the face-up card

Kept the face-up card, and it made a flush

Board

Alicethrew

• Draw hand (5-card high):Ace-high flush✓ wins
• Omaha hand (high):Pair of Kings

Bob

• Draw hand (5-card high):Two pair, Sevens and Threes
• Omaha hand (high):Three Sevens✓ wins

Alice takes half · Bob takes half

Alice had four hearts and one spade. She threw the 4♠ and the dealer flipped up the 9♥. It was a heart, so she kept it. Her five cards, A♥ K♥ Q♥ J♥ 9♥, are an ace-high flush in the draw half. In the Omaha half she must use exactly two of them with three board cards, and the board only has two hearts, so she has no flush there: just a pair of kings. Bob’s draw hand is only two pair, so Alice wins that half, but Bob’s 7♦ 7♣ and the board’s 7♥ make trips, which wins the Omaha half. They each take half.

Rejected the face-up card

Rejected the face-up card, got a full house anyway

Board

Davethrew

• Draw hand (5-card high):Full house, Queens full of Sixes✓ wins
• Omaha hand (high):Full house, Queens full of Eights

Erin

• Draw hand (5-card high):Two pair, Kings and Nines
• Omaha hand (high):Full house, Kings full of Eights✓ wins

Dave takes half · Erin takes half

Dave held Q♠ Q♥ Q♦ 6♣ 4♥ and drew one card for the 4♥. The dealer turned up the J♣, which does nothing for him, so he rejected it and took the next card face down: the 6♠. That made queens full of sixes, which wins the draw half. Erin has kings full of eights in the Omaha half (K♦ K♣ plus the board’s K♠ 8♠ 8♥), which beats Dave’s queens full of eights. The whole table saw the J♣ and saw Dave throw it back.

How you’ll embarrass yourself

• Assuming you can take or leave the face-up card both ways. Once you reject it, the replacement is forced (per PokerNews).
• Forgetting the card is public. Everyone sees a one-card draw, and everyone sees whether you kept it or threw it back.
• Applying the rule to two-card draws. It applies only when you replace exactly one card.
• Breaking up an Omaha hand to chase the draw hand. Same as Drawmaha: discards are gone from both halves.
• Thinking one player has to win both halves. In both examples above, two different players each took half.

Lore and reputation

PokerNews says Sviten spread across Sweden, Finland and Scandinavia, then Europe, with a strong Baltic following. OlyBet festivals in Tallinn feature it regularly. In 2025 the €555 Sviten Special at WSOP Circuit Tallinn was reported by PokerNews as the first standalone Sviten tournament to award a WSOP Circuit gold ring. 2026 OlyBet Showdown Tallinn ran a six-handed pot-limit Sviten event, Vilnius ran a €200 pot-limit one, and The Festival Weekend 2026 in Vilnius and Tallinn included Sviten events.

You won’t find it on US Dealer’s Choice lists. It’s a European festival game. As for who made it up and when, see “Rooms disagree”: the two accounts conflict, so treat both dates as claims.