Here's an example.

I ran into a LAG last night that I noticed was getting a little bit too out of line. Just raising too many hands. He was doing ok, because other people were folding post-flop. But the fact that he never showed down the goods, and usually folded to aggression told me that he was just trying to win by putting a little pressure on people.

So he raises, and I'm in position with 86s and 3-bet. The flop is A67r. He leads for $30. My read here is that he's making a stab, just hoping I don't have an ace. Donk bets are super-weak in live poker. I call. My plan is to bet turn if he checks to me, and likely take it down right there.

The turn is a 5 giving me shitloads of outs. He leads again for $50. Now I'm starting to give him some credit for an ace. This bet size feels value-ish, but I have the pot odds to call.

River 8 giving me two pair. He immediately jams for $200. Like, immediately. Anyone with a straight would take a few seconds to realize that his hand improved and then decide what to do about it. Anyone with a set or big two pair would most likely check/call on this scary board.
This guy acted like he didn't even see the river card. Easy read. Snap call; fist pump.

He had QQ and after the hand felt the need to brag for ten minutes about how he knew I didn't have an ace and I just got soooooooo lucky. That's when he made a profound adjustment. He started limp/calling instead of raising all of his trash hands pre-flop. So for the next hour or so, we did this.....He limps, I raise, He check/folds the flop. After the first couple of times, I started cranking up my pre-flop bet size. $25+ pre-flop and he just limp/calls hoping to flop bingo, but never did (as if I'd pay him off when he does, lol). So he leaks away another buy-in, and then goes home broke.

Would you really call that variance? I'd say that's skillfully identifying exploitable players and profiting from their mistakes. I won his first buy in by catching a card. Maybe I over-realized my equity in that one. But that was one hand. His second buy in, I could have been playing with two napkins and I still would have won the money. That's why the live game doesn't compare to online.

In an online game, that villain would have been far more likely to adjust. And he would have been more balanced to begin with. In the live scenario, people almost never adjust. This guy kept calling pre-flop with ranges containing 300+ card combos, and then only continuing with maybe 50 of them. Variance be damned. There is absolutely no way you can lose money against a player like that.