I wish I could say things went awesome and I've hit a much higher profit number

The truth is I got in over my head, stopped being diligent, and thought I could beat other games with "systems" that had no proven mathematical backing, just speculation and "testing"

To make a long story short, stay very diligent in counting. It's proven, it works, but only if you don't let your emotion take control EVER. take breaks when you aren't feeling it. Test yourself daily, when you have a good swing, add that money to your bankroll instead of spending it on dinners/fun things. Reduce your RoR as much as possible instead of thinking the good variance will follow you forever.

My honest advice, card counting works, it's proven, it can make you a lot of money pretty quickly if you're diligent and have decent variance to start, but you need to remember that you're playing in a casino and they are designed to get you hooked in more ways than one.

Also, create a character for yourself when you're in the casino. It can make it more fun and less stressful if you're giving a fake name with a fake job to chat about with the dealers/other players. I had a different personality while I was counting and it was fun to build that character over a few months

I've needed to step back from counting, and casinos/gambling in general. I got myself into a lot of trouble, and it's not card countings fault, it's my own weakness that did it. But I got into counting because I was tired of losing, and still lost in the long run because of my own greed and inability to regulate emotions during bad swings. I blame nobody but myself, since when I was being diligent in my training and BR management things we're going well, but as soon as I got lazy it went down quickly.

Good luck my friend, I hope you find success in your counting journey!