Histograms of cards

Let's say that you are given a small array of cards. Say it contains five cards. Say it's called hand.

1.

Write a method called drawHand that takes an array of Cards as a parameter and that returns a new array of Cards that contains (references to) just the first five cards in the deck. Here is what the state diagram for this method should look like:

figure=subdeck2.eps,height=1.5in

2.

Use shuffleDeck and drawHand to generate and print four random poker hands. Did you get anything good?

3.

Now imagine that you want to generate random hands and check, automatically, if you have a good hand. In case you don't play poker, here is what I mean by a good hand (in increasing order of value):

pair:

two cards with the same rank

two pair:

two pairs of cards with the same rank

three of a kind:

three cards with the same rank

straight:

five cards with ranks in sequence

flush:

five cards with the same suit

full house:

three cards with one rank, two cards with another

four of a kind:

four cards with the same rank

straight flush:

five cards in sequence and with the same suit

Write a method called isFlush that takes a hand (array of cards) and that returns a boolean indicating whether the hand contains a flush.

4.

Write a method called isThreeKind that takes a hand and returns a boolean indicating whether the hand contains Three of a Kind.

The following part of the assignment is optional, but fun:

5.

Write a loop that generates a few thousand hands and checks whether they contain a flush or three of a kind. Estimate the probability of getting one of those hands.