[disjunction]

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The reason there is more "variance" in stud doesn't have to do with the extra round of betting really. It's more because A) the river card is dealt down (thus forcing you to pay off bets you wouldn't have to in hold em and causing you to miss some thin bets you'd make in hold em) and B) the fact that it's not a shared board game so suckouts are more frequent.

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Hmmm, since you apparently know what you speak of, this is quite surprising. My understanding from reading Mason's essays was that it's not so much the difference in structure between stud and hold'em that causes variance, but rather the size of the antes. Since low limit stud has a small ante, it has small variance, and since high limit stud has higher antes, it has higher variance. In essence high limit stud becomes more of a showdown contest, which gives no one an advantage.

(caveats: (1) I have barely played any stud. (2) There's a chance I'm misunderstanding what Mason wrote. (3) In all likelihood, I can resolve your statements with Mason's by positing that some of the high limit 7stud players today must really be atrocious, then, compared to the hold'em players)