It often seems like that dealer cheats more than us
(and the game encourages us to)
As far as hitting low hands 12-16s, it all depends on what the dealer has showing. The dealer MUST hit until he gets 17 or more, you do not.
As far as making gold playing cards, I make more gold in 20 minutes at the blackjack table (at PDF w/500 limit) than any 2 hours of plundering.
I have all I can possibly buy, i've lost over 40k gold on purpose to friends and still have all sorts of gold, wont be much longer i'll be back up to the max. hehe
Zeppers Lvl40
http://pirates.teamofx.us