The first event of Monday kicked off in the €250 Sviten Special after some announcements by both the floor and The Festival Series founder Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk.
If you aren't familiar with the rules, you can easily learn the game if you are familiar with both five-card draw and pot-limit Omaha.
The action starts off simply enough with each player getting dealt five cards followed by a round of betting in pot-limit format. A flop is then dealt and another round of betting takes place.
So far so good? Well, here is where it starts to get trickier. Players can discard any amount of cards for new ones or opt to stand pat. If a player only takes one card, it is face-up for every player to see. The player can decide whether to keep that card or ask for a new one. If they take a new one, it is face down like it would have been if they took 2-5 cards.
A turn is dealt followed by a another round of betting with the final round of betting taking place after the river. The player with the best five-card draw hand at showdown wins half the pot while the player with the best Omaha hand wins the other half.
The event provides plenty of action with a 30-minute clock and a 300 big blind starting stack of 30,000 in chips. Players can re-enter as many times as they would like during the first eight blind levels.
The event began with 24 entries and Franke appears convinced based on his announcement that a new record will be broken to shatter the 79 entries attracted in this event at The Festival Series Malta. Time will tell whether this will happen or not, but expect a big crowd.
Sviten Special author Martin Smith, Totti Lind, Frank Visser, Fuad Gotovusa, and Franke are among the early entrants, while Scott "Pokerbrahs" Kenyon will be streaming his action on his Twitch channel for everyone to watch and learn.
