Blackjack (Java)

A desktop blackjack game built with Java and Swing. You play against a simple dealer AI, with hit/stay choices, automatic stands on 21 or bust, and a running session scoreboard.

Features

• Full 52-card deck with suits rendered on the table (Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs)
• Player hit/stay flow with on-screen prompts and action log
• Dealer AI: hits below 16 or when behind a non-busting player total, otherwise stays
• Ace handling with soft totals (1 or 11) consistent with classic blackjack scoring
• Play-again loop without restarting the app; quit ends the background render loop cleanly

Technologies

• Java SE
• Swing (JFrame, JPanel, custom paintComponent drawing)
• java.util collections and java.util.concurrent.atomic for shutdown signaling

What I Learned

• Separating domain models (card, deck, hand totals) from UI code makes rules easier to test and reason about
• Using enums for rank and suit avoids string bugs (for example, comparing Aces with == on strings)
• Immutable value objects (like log messages) simplify sharing data between the model and the view
• Coordinating game state with a fixed-step loop and Swing repaints taught me to be careful about when totals are recalculated relative to AI decisions

Future Improvements

• Move long-running dealer delays off the render path (e.g. javax.swing.Timer) to avoid blocking threads
• Add explicit push (tie) handling and configurable house rules (dealer soft 17, number of decks)
• Unit tests for HandTotals, RoundResolver, and Deck
• Package as a runnable JAR and/or migrate the same rules to a TypeScript version for the web