Tomorrow, August 1, Day 2 of Ring Event #5: €1,500 Main Event is arguably the golden nugget on the tournament schedule. That being said, tomorrow will also be a historical day in the Estonian capital, as Ring Event #9: €555 Sviten, is scheduled to commence at 15:00. This is the first-ever WSOP Circuit Ring Event of the very popular game that is Sviten, and presumably, many experienced players will join the action in an attempt to write their name into the poker history books.
There are many players who are capable of winning the title in this Five-Card Draw/PLO-hybrid of a game. One of them is Sweden’s Peter La Terra. Peter arrived to Tallinn the other day, and yesterday, he could be seen in Olympic Park Casino playing a €5/€5 Sviten cash game with fellow Scandinavians. He is, without a doubt, a serious contender for the trophy, and you’d better believe he’s here to win it.
This reporter was lucky enough to have a small chat with Peter, who’s currently playing the €200 Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw side event.
An impressive Resumé
Peter has to be considered one of the most prominent Sviten players in the world. According to his profile on The Hendon Mob, he has two titles in the discipline and a horde of final table results. On top of that, he also has two Five-card Draw titles. A very impressive resumé, and he’s the most proud of a certain title that he got back in 2019:
“2019, I won the €220 Pot-Limit Drawmaha Championship here in Tallinn. It was branded like the it was the “World Championship” of Sviten, but I expect tomorrow’s tournament to be much bigger.”
The inaugural event is indeed expected to be a big one. Every Mixed Games enthusiast that you speak to here at the Hilton Tallinn Park Hotel all expresses their excitement for the tournament. An educated guess is that the unparalleled action that Sviten brings is why so many players are fond of this game.
According to Peter, it’s crucial to know the strength of your hand in Sviten, something the average player may not be aware of:
“The most common mistake I see amongst players is that they over-value their PLO hand and bet too frequently on the flop. You have better chances scooping the pot if you instead bet on the turn and/or the river.”
While Peter hasn’t hit the books studying the Scandinavian-invented game, he’s been playing PLO and Five-card Draw more than most people on earth. When asked about his biggest strength in Sviten, Peter claims patience is the most important skill to master, not only in Sviten but in poker in general. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Considering the vast amount of skillful and merited players we’re expected to see tomorrow, I asked Peter if there’s any particular name who may appear in the field that he fears. “Not Peter Bergman, he should stick to selling sandwiches,” Peter jokes as Bergman bursts out in laugh from the other table. Seriously though, Peter is way too experienced to underestimate any player who’s seated at his table.
Once again, the tournament starts at 15:00 tomorrow. Late registration will close at the end of Level 10, approximately at 21:45. It’s a two-day event; Day 1 will be played until 15 % of the field remains. Those who make it through will return to Day 2, August 2 at 12:00.
This tournament will go down in poker history, and time will tell who manages to snag the prestigious WSOP Circuit Ring.
