Expect a lot of short-short-term variance (and by that I mean over 500 or so hands, not 5,000 like the short-term is in Hold 'em) in Stud 8/b. The bad beats are less frequent but more absurd, which makes sense - it's an inverse relationship.

That said, at the low limits, you should be able to make 2.5bb/hr without too much trouble as a regular solid player. My winrate is about 1.5 - 2.0bb/hr in the $10/20 game on Party, which I feel is good but could certainly be improved.