instructions.md
September 14, 2020 ยท View on GitHub
In this exercise we will simulate the first turn of a Blackjack game.
You will receive two cards and will be able to see the face up card of the dealer. All cards are represented using a string such as "ace", "king", "three", "two", etc. The values of each card are:
| card | value | card | value |
|---|---|---|---|
| ace | 11 | eight | 8 |
| two | 2 | nine | 9 |
| three | 3 | ten | 10 |
| four | 4 | jack | 10 |
| five | 5 | queen | 10 |
| six | 6 | king | 10 |
| seven | 7 | other | 0 |
Note: Commonly, aces can take the value of 1 or 11 but for simplicity we will assume that they can only take the value of 11.
Depending on your two cards and the card of the dealer, there is a strategy for the first turn of the game, in which you have the following options:
- Stand (S)
- Hit (H)
- Split (P)
- Automatically win (W)
Although not optimal yet, you will follow the strategy your friend Alex has been developing, which is as follows:
Category: Large Hand
- If you have a pair of aces you must always split them.
- If you have a Blackjack (two cards that sum up to a value of 21), and the dealer does not have an ace, a figure or a ten then you automatically win. If the dealer does have any of those cards then you'll have to stand and wait for the reveal of the other card.
Category: Small Hand
- If your cards sum up to 17 or higher you should always stand.
- If your cards sum up to 11 or lower you should always hit.
- If your cards sum up to a value within the range [12, 16] you should always stand unless the dealer has a 7 or higher, in which case you should always hit.
The overall logic has already been implemented. You have four tasks:
1. Calculate the score of any given card.
Implement a function to calculate the numerical value of a card given its name using coditionals.
parseCard("ace")
// returns 11
2. Determine if two cards make up a Blackjack.
Implement a function that returns true if two cards form a Blackjack, false otherwise.
isBlackjack("queen", "ace")
// returns true
3. Implement the decision logic for hand scores larger than 20 points.
Implement a function that returns the string representation of a decision given your cards. This function is only called if the handScore is larger than 20. It will receive 2 arguments: isBlackJack and dealerScore. It should implement the bulletpoints in the category "Large Hand" above.
isBlackJack = true
dealerScore = 7
largeHand(isBlackJack, dealerScore)
// returns "W"
4. Implement the decision logic for hand scores with less than 21 points.
Implement a function that returns the string representation of a decision given your cards. This function is only called if the handScore is less than 21. It will receive 2 arguments: handScore and dealerScore. It should implement the bulletpoints in the category "Small Hand" above.
handScore = 15
dealerScore = 12
SmallHand(handScore, dealerScore)
// returns "H"