In my experience variance doesn't exist, at least not for the quality player. Everytime I read on these boards that losing streaks are just negative variance is starting to drive me nuts. For variance to exist there must be both positive and negative variance. This may happen for average Joe, but not for the winning player that most of us that frequent this forum are. It does not happen for the winning player becasue we do not make the same mistakes that Joe makes. We do not chase the 2,3,4 outers to the river calling PSBs the whole way. If we did then maybe we could have some positive variance. Each hand is a seperate event for us, our decisions are based on our poker abilities. We make decisions that effect that hand and sometimes future hands. When our decisions are wrong we lose, when we are right we win. We are right more times than Joe that is why we win. This does not mean that we don't spike that 2 outer every now and again or hit that back door straight it is that we are not hoping for it as Joe does. As far as the Bad Beats go Joe is going to give them and we are going to take them.

Now why some of us have these dwonswings? I haven't figured that out yet. Is it tilting, bad play, card dead, being out played, bad breath, etc.? I currently think it is a failure to adjust. This may be adjusting to bad players, bad tables, bad position. When people say that they are not on their A game is this because they are not playing their best? Maybe, but it could also be that they aren't adjusting. Maybe their normal game is not good for the table that they are on. There are a lot of players on here whose game only works on certain tables, which is fine. I believe I am currently one of these players which is why I have regular downswings.