EECS 370 - Blackjack

Machine Problem 2

Due date: Thursday September 30, 1999 at 11:59 pm

For this assignment, you are to write a program that will allow the user to play the game of blackjack against a computer dealer. The game of blackjack uses a standard deck of 52 playing cards. The deck contains 4 suits: clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. Each suit contains 13 cards: ace, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, jack queen and king.

The goal of the game is get a collection of cards, called a "hand", that has a point total as close to 21 points as possible without going over 21 points. If a player goes over 21 points, they immediate lose (the player "busts"). In order to win, the player cannot "bust" and must have more points than the dealer (the dealer can also bust, in which case the player wins if they have 21 or less points).

The cards from two to ten are worth the same number of points as the card's name (a seven is worth 7 points). The cards jack, queen and king are worth 10 points. An ace is worth either 1 or 11 points. An ace is considered to be worth 11 points unless this causes the point total to be over 21, then an ace is worth 1 point. The suits have no impact on the points of the game, but every card must have an associate suit.

The basic play of each round is as follows:

The player's hand and dealer's hand start with two cards each (the player gets one card, the dealer gets one card, the player gets a second card and the dealer gets a second card).
Both hands are checked to see if they have "blackjack" (total 21 points with only the first two cards given), if so the hand with "blackjack" wins and round ends. If both players have blackjack, there is a tie, called a "push" and neither wins.
If neither player has blackjack, the round continues and the player is allowed to get more cards, called a "hit", to increase the point value of the hand. The player can stop getting more cards at any time, called "stand", in fact the player is not required to take any more card. If the player "busts", goes over 21 points, the hand immediate loses.
After the player stands, the dealer then either hits or stands based on the current point score of the dealer's hand. If the dealer has 16 or less points, the dealer takes a hit. If the dealer has 17 or more points, the dealer stands. If the dealer busts, all player hands that have 21 points or less win. All player hands that have busted (go over 21), the dealer wins even if the dealer busts. If all player hands have busted, the dealer does not take any hits and immediately wins.
All player hands that have 21 or less points are compared to the dealer's hand. The hand with the highest point total wins. If there is a tie, called a "push", neither wins.

For each hand in blackjack, the player makes a bet. This bet is against the dealer's hand only, not against any other player's hands. If the player loses the hand (the dealer wins), the player loses the bet. If the player and dealer push (tie), the bet is returned to the player with no extra winnings. If the player has a blackjack, the bet is returned to the player with a 150% winning (rounded down if needed). If the player wins without a blackjack, the bet is returned to the player with a 100% winning. In this game we will use "credits" as the unit of the bet. A player has to bet at least one credit per hand and cannot bet more credits than they have. The player will start the game with 500 credits.

Your program is to allow the following additional rules for the player.

The player can split their hand if the first two cards have the same point value.
The player can "double down" if the point total of the first two cards is 9, 10 or 11 points.

These options are only available for hands that have two cards in them. Once the first hit is taken on a hand, that hand can not be split or doubled down.

To split a hand, the first two cards in the hand must have the same point value. The player is now playing two different hands instead of just one, where the first card of new hands is one of the cards from the original hand. The amount bet on the new hands is the same as the bet on the original one, and the player must have enough credits available to split the hand. Each hand is played independently. After the split, the dealer will deal a second card to the first hand and the player will play that hand until they stand or bust, then the dealer will deal a second card to the second hand and the player will then play that hand until the stand or bust. If the second card given after the split again matches the first card, the player may split again. Thus a player could end up playing 3 or more hands in a single round. Note: if a player splits two aces and gets a card worth ten points with one of the split aces, this is NOT a blackjack. Blackjack only occurs if the first two cards dealt to the PLAYER total 21 points, not if the first two cards dealt to a HAND total 21 points. A player is not required to split a hand and once the first hit is taken on a hand, that hand can not be split.

To double down, the first two cards in the hand must value a point value of 9, 10 or 11. If the player decides to double down, the bet amount is doubled and the hand only get one more card (for a total of three cards in the hand). A player may double down after a hand has been split. A player is not required to double down and once the first hit is taken on a hand, that hand can not be doubled down.

For more information on the game of blackjack, surf the web. There is a good page at www.blackjackinfo.com/bjrules.htm. This page also discusses how to play in a casino and includes other rules that we will not include in our program. There are also a number of gui-based blackjack games on the web. If you are unsure how to play, find one and learn how.

For this program, you MUST use classes for all user defined data types except for enumerated types. You must have at least three classes: card, shoe and hand.

The card class keeps info about each card. Suggested data members include a suit value and a face value. Suggested methods include get_point_value().
The shoe class is to hold the undelt cards. Suggested methods include shuffle_decks(), deal_initial_hands() and deal_card().
The hand class is to hold the cards for each hand in play (one instance for each hand). Suggested methods include get_card(), print_hand(), determine_point_value(), check_for_split(), split_hand() and check_for_double_down().

Your program must keep the methods in separate source code file(s) from the program's functions. These files must be compiled separately and linked together. Note the ideas given for each class's data members and methods are suggestions, the actual contents of these classes is up to you to determine.

Your program is to be interactive with a command interface. There will be two types of commands: inter-round commands (commands used between rounds) and intra-round commands (commands used during a round). The inter-round commands are:

Shuffle deck - s [int]

Allows the player to force the cards to be reshuffled in the shoe. The optional integer value indicates the number of decks to be shuffled. If no integer value is given, use the number of decks from the last shuffle command. The initial number of decks is 2. The shoe is to automatically be shuffled if the shoe contains 10 or less cards after a round has been played. The number of decks used by this automatic shuffle is the number used by the last shuffle command. You are to print a message whenever this automatic shuffle occurs. If shoe ever runs out of cards in the middle of a round, all hands that have not busted immediate win.

Deal hand - d [int]

Deal the initial two cards to the player and dealer and starts a new round. The optional integer value indicates the amount of credits to be bet for this round. If no integer value is given, use the bet amount from the last deal command. The initial amount of the bet is 10 credits.

Information report - i

This command causes the following inforamtion to be given.

The current credit amount
The number of hands played by the player
The number of hands won
The number of hands pushed
The number of hands lost
The number of player blackjacks
The number of dealer blackjacks
The number of cards left in the shoe

Quit game - q

This command causes the program to end.

Help - ?

This command causes information about the inter-round commands. The information can be taken directly from this write up.

The intra-round commands are:

Hit - h: Add a card to the player's current hand.
Stand - s: The player ends adding cards to the current hand and play continues with the next hand.
Double down - d: The player uses the double down option. Note this is not available at all times.
Split - p: The player splits the current hand into two hands. Note this is not available at all times.
Help - ?: This command causes information about the intra-round commands. The information can be taken directly from this write up.

The prompt for the intra-round commands must show which commands are currently available for the player. An example prompt could be:

     Enter command for player hand 1 (h, s, d, ?) >

This prompt indicates the player could hit, stand, double down or request help, but the player could not split the current hand.

Prior to each intra-round command, you are to show all of the cards in play (in some organized manner) and the point value for the current hand. The face and suit value of the dealer's first card is not shown to player until the end of the hand. So some way of indicating that this card exists but values are not being shown must be determined. At the end of each round, the following must be shown:

All cards played in each hand (in some organized manner)
The point total for each hand (state "blackjack" for blackjack and "bust" if the total is over 21 points)
Whether a hand wins, pushes or loses
The amount of credits bet on the round
The amount of credits won on the round
The total amount of credits the player has

Your program must be written in good programming style. This includes (but is not limited to) meaningful identifier names, a file header at the beginning of each source code file, a function header at the beginning of the function, proper use of blank lines and indentation to aide in the reading of your code, explanatory "value-added" in-line comments, etc.

The work you turn in must be 100% your own. You are not allowed to share code with any other person (inside this class or not). You may discuss the project with other persons; however, you may not show any code you write to another person nor may you look at any other person's written code.

You are also to write a one to two page program description. This write up must be submitted with your program and be in ASCII text format. This description is to explain your internal data structures, code structures and the algorithms used in your program. Remember, this program description will be read by another student when the critiques are done for this assignment. Often the title of "readme" is used for these types of documents.

You are to submit this project using the EECS Department's UNIX machine's turnin command. The project name for this assignment is mp2. Be sure to submit all source code and header files as well as your makefile and program description. Failure to turnin all required pieces will result in a lower grade for the assignment.