I have been playing this Swedish game "svitten special" every now and then:
http://www.seanlind.com/poker-rules/...and-game-play/

As the game is pretty action packed it always seems to come out as the favourite in any dealer's choice rotation when the players are drunk. I have quite drunk as well whenever the game has been dealt, and I haven't given the game much thought.

Has anyone been played this game? Any thoughts about basic strategies how to approach it?

Btw, if you haven't played the game I encourage you to try it out - it's one of the sickest poker variants out there.

This looks awesome. Lets play!

This looks awesome. Lets play!

Hands down, this is my favorite poker variation to play these days. That should be obvious, since the link is to the rules on my personal blog.

The game is extremely action heavy, but without degrading into an all-in sh*tshow. Wild card games always turn into

If (instr($yourCards, $wildCard) > 0)
play_hand;
Else
fold;

If you haven't played it, give it a try. I've yet to find a poker player (amateur or professional) who hasn't loved it.

Oh man I am going to immediately try to get a small stakes game going.

The game works best with 4-5 players, just be sure to limit the draws with more.

This game will spread like wild fire, it's just too much fun not to.

My friend and I will be choosing this in our Dealer's Choice game tonight. Our Dealer's Choice game rules ensure that the Dealer gets to choose the game for 1 orbit and the game doesn't change every Dealer! So we should see at least 10 hands of this!

OK we played one round of this and people got stacked alot. The guy who owns the house said we can't play it anymore.

I didn't play a single hand voluntarily because unlike everyone else at the table I had already figured out you need an above average 5CD hand to see the flop.

I also figured out that there should be little action in the game because of the above reason. Yet there was. Kind of like Omaha 8 in that regard.

LOL, you have it all wrong. You can get 5 NEW CARDS, which means you will see EVERY flop (unless you're playing it with no draw after the flop, then you'll be more selective)

The action in this game is intense, but being a split pot game you don't see too many people getting stacked, unless they're getting scooped or you have a third man in.

This game is awesome, but it is EXTREMELY action heavy if you're playing guys who don't like to fold a lot.

We typically have no preflop raises, since no one is folding preflop anyways, but when you do raise it just ensures that the pot is going to be massive.

Seeing every flop means you're really only playing for half the pot though: the 5 card Omaha half. The people playing selectively pre-flop will win out long-run by playing better 5CD hands as well.

You, sir, are very mistaken. That's like saying you'd be more successful being super tight and always rapping pat in draw, than playing loose and dropping cards.

If you have a solid start to a 5-card hand, then it's worth raising preflop, otherwise you're looking for the flop to decide there. You have to make your decision based on getting the best 5-card hand, while maximizing your chances for the PLO.

It's like any split pot game, you play for one half primarily, with as strong a shot at scooping as you can.

You never play for just the low in O8, you're always playing for high, with a shot at the low. Same with Svitten, you play for the PLO, and scoop with a good 5-card.

as an o8 specialist i can def say you do this by playing strong starting hands preflop, ones which can make nut lows.

i fail to see how there is much difference between this and svitten.

the only difference i see is that you can start off in svitten with a big drawing hand like QJT9-brick. while it's not a made hand if you hit it after the draw you'll also have a huge PLO hand a lot of the time too.

also, my friends and i have determined that the best starting hand is AAAAK with a suited ace. (we believe it's harder to scoop with a royal flush but we could be wrong)

I'd be interesting in seeing an AAAAK hand w/o a suited ace

I think you're trying to play this game way too tight. With 5 cards, and the ability to get 5 new cards after the flop, you can see 13 of the possible 52 cards on just the flop.

With this much information, you can make incredibly informed PLO choices. Plus, since most people aren't raising preflop, it's cheap to see the flop and take your draw. To play this game optimally, you'll be seeing 90%+ of all flops. I, personally, go with 100%.

Fair enough.

We play all sorts of variations of 5CD split pot games in my game, it's good stuff.

Nice, Svitten was originally a 5cd/O8 split game, but it's too hard to convince newer players to play with 3 pots. Not to mention how much it slows down the game when dealing with amateur (or drunk) dealers.

I'm a fan of playing Svitten as a 2-7/PLO split as well. Again, this only really works for old hands.

Really, any game with action, skill, and not hold'em is a winner.

Since this thread we have played the game every single time, and more recently it has become a Super Stud (High Only) / Svitten mix.

Super stud is 7CS and pot limit, get dealt 5, discard 2 and choose your own upcard. 3rd street is positional with blinds, the rest, high hand first to speak.

Anyway to prove my point about trying to have the best 5CD hand, I was involved in a hand last week where I had Aces and Threes after the flop in my 5CD hand. We were four handed and I had started with Aces ITH and raised preflop pot to 35 and hit the pair of Threes after drawing three cards. The flop was TT9 no flush draw.

We play it so that there is preflop betting, burn card, deal flop, then immediately burn and ask FTA "How many?" Then betting, then rest of hand is 5 card PLO.

Anyway we get it all in on the turn for 300 big blinds each, my friend and I, and he has Sevens full of Tens on the PLO side and Jacks and Sevens on the 5CD side. I know that I have the best hand for the 5CD, which is why all the money goes in.

At this point I am totally freerolling. I need an Ace or a Ten and I knew I was freerolling to at least the Ace.

The Ace on the river comes and I immediately flip and announce my hand. He is very upset but he knows it was a freeroll!

And that's why you play for the 5CD hand. Once you have the best hand after the draw you freeroll everyone else and can also see turn and river with impunity regardless of bet size faced if you're not betting already.

Sure, people can draw 5 cards, but just like in normal draw games, with the best hand going in you take your chances, it's unlikely you'll get beat.

What about for the tri-split game? I think that would be a blast headsup.

If youre referring to PLO/PLO8/5CD, It probably would be AAAA2 suited.

Yup, that was the game. I kind of wonder if you need that strong a draw hand. AAA23 double suited is quite a bit stronger in the other two games and I mean trip aces still wins the vast majority of 5 card draw high pots. I think maybe even AA233 or something might have better equity than AAAA2. Know it's hard to simulate draw hands/behavior but it'd be neat to see. I'm going to go out on a limb and say I think there are quite a few hands that fair better against a random hand than AAAA2 ss.

I think AAAAK is wrong, a straight flush is a far better Svitten hand because AAAAK is just AA with possible flush draw for the PLO side, but straight flush can make straight on the board/fulls/quads and flushes. I have had huge wins with straights dealt to me or drawn. These are the most profitable hands, especially with two flush draws.

Tri split IMO is too complicated, and also removes a significant portion of the freeroll element of the game. If I only have the 5CD hand locked up, now I have to worry about losing 2/3rds if I have nothing else, and it's probably really hard to scoop or get 2/3rds. Also people get sixthed a lot. That sucks.

This is actually one of the key differences between O8 and this game. O8 is a game with a qualifier while svitten is not. In O8 you can scoop with high only hands if there is no qualifying low but you can not scoop in svitten if you don't have anything going for 5CD half (unless you promote your PLO hand and make everyone fold). Seems like playing too loose predraw/flop is a HUGE mistake.

I'm pretty sure it is too. Also think it might be farther down than just behind straight flushes. I think I'd even rather have a hand like Aces full of Kings double suited.