[Ed Miller]

You're pretty much wrong on this one. Like Kick already mentioned, there are players on these boards who are beating a game for over 3bb/100 (I assume Gambler is, though I don't know for certain) who have gone through the type of downswings you mention.

The 400 number isn't the important point. Maybe I should have said 500 instead. My point is that if you want to make a lot of money playing poker, you just have to play the "high-variance" style. If you "I want to keep my variance down" yourself all the time, your winrate will drop a ton.