To me, variance is when you get your money in with the best of it and the percentages are in your favor, yet you still lose. Or, the percentages are not in your favor, but you suck out.

Period.

Why cant variance be attributed to one hand? Regardless if you were supposed to win one hand in a row or four hands in a row, and lost them, its still variance.

Variance is just a term used to describe improbable outcomes in the short run. The long run is unaffected by variance.

Bad beat = variance
Sucking out = variance

I think multiple bad beats in a row or multiple suckouts in a row would be more accurately be described as a downswing or an upswing. The actual beats themselves though are the variance in the game.