Programming Praxis

Blackjack is a casino game of chance, played by a player and a dealer. Both player and dealer are initially dealt two cards from a standard 52-card deck. If the player’s initial hand consists of an ace and a ten or face card, the player wins, unless the dealer also has an ace and a ten or face card, in which case the game is a tie. Otherwise, the player draws cards until he decides to stop; if at any time the sum of the pips on the cards (aces count either 1 or 11, face cards count 10) exceeds 21, the player is busted, and loses. Once the player is finished, the dealer draws cards until he has 17 or more pips, or goes bust, at which time the game ends. If neither has gone bust, the hand with the most pips wins. There are many variant rules, but we’ll keep things simple with the rules described above.

Your task is to simulate Blackjack and determine the winning percentage for the player. When you are finished, you are welcome to read or run a suggested solution, or to post your own solution or discuss the exercise in the comments below.

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