Road to Malta: What is Sviten Mix? And What Games Does It Include?
Poker players in Europe are now looking to master one of Europe's fastest-growing split-pot formats, already had access to our Sviten Special tutorial, but since we are organising a Sviten Mix tournament in Malta, it's time to spice things up a bit!
At The Festival Malta, we will be coming with a new tournament that is called Sviten Mix. That Sviten Special is gaining popularity all over Europe, and beyond as well when you consider Asian Poker Tour and Irish Open Sydney, so we thought it's time to step up the game, and introduce to you variants of the game of Sviten, who are being played by all mixed games fanatics in the Nordics.
Every Sviten hand, if that's Sviten Special, SvitenDugi, Sviten 49, or any other format, is split pot game that includes Omaha as the standard portion of the pie, and the draw aspect of it. Now, that draw portion, changes with every variant of the game (as well as the hand combinations. Everything else stills works exactly the same; You still will be able to exchange one card and get one face up and if you don't like it, you get another one face down. You still will get a total of 5 hole cards, and in the exchange phase, you can exchange 0-5 cards.
Until now, understanding the full Sviten family meant piecing together rules from scattered sources. The Festival's new guide changes that, walking players through the shared Omaha foundation and draw mechanics before breaking down what makes each of the five variants different:
- Sviten 49 - a point-based sprint toward the maximum 49-point draw hand, built on four Tens and a Nine.
- Sviten 50 - the same scoring system with a twist: five picture cards form a rare 50-point hand that beats everything else.
- SvitenDugi - Omaha meets Badugi, challenging players to build the lowest four-card hand with no matching suits or ranks.
- Sviten 2-7 - a lowball draw modeled on 2-7 Single Draw, where straights and flushes work against you.
- Sviten 0 - the mirror image of Sviten 49, where the lowest possible point total takes the draw pot.
The guide doesn't stop at rules. Each variant section includes fully worked examples with proper card notation, side-by-side hand comparisons, and a dedicated strategy segment aimed at players just getting their feet wet. Topics range from which cards to prioritize during the draw phase to how to read the community board for clues about opponents' hidden hands, and, crucially, how to avoid the classic Sviten trap of chasing a strong draw hand at the expense of a competitive Omaha hand.
For new players, The Festival recommends starting with the core mechanics of Sviten Special before touching any of the other variants of Sviten. This because every variant shares the same Omaha aspect of it, and the draw structure. Once you have mastered that part of the game, and realise what the differences are in the game, you can start exploring the new variants.
With Sviten variants set to feature for the first time ever on a tournant schedule of The Festival, the time of the Sviten Variants guide is no accident of course. We are positioning the guide as the go-to reference for players who want to walk into a Sviten table, whichever variant is spread, already knowing how to balance two hands, read the board twice over, and give yourself the best shot at scooping the entire pot.
The full guide, complete with hand rankings and detailed examples for all five variants, is available now through The Festival. Click on the orange bar above, to find out what Variants are included in the Sviten Mix tournament at The Festival Malta 2026.
