I'm getting confused by the output because it won't let me recreate an object

Question

I'm trying to solve a problem where I try to reset my deck of cards once I've draw all cards. When I reach the end of the deck I should indeed get message Deck is empty! You must recreate and reshuffle deck of cards! but once deck has been recreated and re-shuffled it still keeps showing up this message.

So I am passing Card object to Deck class where is stored in array in stack fashion.

Why am I getting such output where I do indeed reset the deck of cards?

deal, bet, hit, stay, split, leave: deal

Drawing Player's card... 9 ♥
Drawing Dealer's card... A ♣
Drawing Player's card... 7 ♦
Drawing Dealer's card... K ♦

Dealers Hand: K_♦ A_♣ = 21
Players Hand: 7_♦ 9_♥ = 16

Dealer has BLACKJACK!

deal, bet, hit, stay, split, leave: deal

Deck is empty! You must recreate and reshuffle deck of cards!
Creating deck...
Shuffling deck...
Drawing Player's card... 7 ♥
Drawing Dealer's card... 5 ♥
Drawing Player's card... K ♠
Drawing Dealer's card... 6 ♦

Dealers Hand: 6_♦ 5_♥ = 11
Players Hand: K_♠ 7_♥ = 17

deal, bet, hit, stay, split, leave: deal

Deck is empty! You must recreate and reshuffle deck of cards!
Creating deck...
Shuffling deck...
Drawing Player's card... Q ♦
Drawing Dealer's card... 9 ♥
Drawing Player's card... 8 ♥
Drawing Dealer's card... 10 ♠

Dealers Hand: 10_♠ 9_♥ = 19
Players Hand: 8_♥ Q_♦ = 18

deal, bet, hit, stay, split, leave: deal

Deck is empty! You must recreate and reshuffle deck of cards!
Creating deck...
Shuffling deck...
Drawing Player's card... 3 ♣
Drawing Dealer's card... 6 ♠
Drawing Player's card... 4 ♠
Drawing Dealer's card... K ♠

Dealers Hand: K_♠ 6_♠ = 16
Players Hand: 4_♠ 3_♣ = 7

deal, bet, hit, stay, split, leave:

This is how I reset my deck of cards:

private static Deck createDeck(Deck deck)
{
    System.out.println("Creating deck...");
    deck = new Deck(DECKSIZE);
    deck.createDeck();

    System.out.println("Shuffling deck...");
    deck.shuffleDeck();

    return deck;
}

This is how I check if deck is empty or not:

private static Deck checkDeck(Deck deck)
{
    if(deck == null)
        return createDeck(deck);
    if(deck.isEmpty())
    {
        deck = new Deck(DECKSIZE);
        System.out.print("Deck is empty! You must recreate and reshuffle deck of cards!\n");
        return createDeck(deck);
    }
    else
        return deck;
}

I check the deck every time before I draw a card:

public static void drawFromDeck(Deck deck, Hand hand)
{
    deck = checkDeck(deck);

    Card temp = new Card(deck.pop());
    System.out.println("Drawing " + hand.getName() + "'s card... " + temp.toString());
    hand.insert(temp);

    System.out.print("\n");
}

initialDraw()

private static void initialDraw(Deck deck, Hand player, Hand dealer)
{
    deck = checkDeck(deck);
    drawFromDeck(deck, player); // drawing players card
    deck = checkDeck(deck);
    drawFromDeck(deck, dealer); // drawing dealers card
    deck = checkDeck(deck);
    drawFromDeck(deck, player); // drawing players card
    deck = checkDeck(deck);
    drawFromDeck(deck, dealer); // drawing dealers card

    System.out.print("Dealers Hand:");
    dealer.displayHand();
    System.out.print(" = " + dealer.getHandTotal() + "\n");
    System.out.print("Players Hand:");
    player.displayHand();
    System.out.print(" = " + player.getHandTotal() + "\n");

    checkInitialDraw(player, dealer);
}

Answer 1

There are a couple of scoping issue (for the Deck variable).

To summarize, this is the type of mistake:

void createObj(MyObject objt)
{
    objt = new MyObject(); //Local Scope
}
//Caller
MyObject obj = null;
createObj(obj); // <-- New object will be created only within the function, obj will remain unaffected.
// obj is still null;

I suggest these changes (wrt http://ideone.com/S4Yv3l) for getting the code to work, however, you can improve your code.

i) Change the signature of createDeck.

    private static Deck createDeck()
    {
        System.out.println("Creating deck...");
        Deck deck = new Deck(DECKSIZE);
        deck.createDeck();

        System.out.println("Shuffling deck...");
        deck.shuffleDeck();

        return deck;
    }

ii) CheckDeck

    private static Deck checkDeck(Deck deck)
    {
        if(deck == null)
            return createDeck();

        if(deck.isEmpty())
        {
            System.out.print("Deck is empty! You must recreate and reshuffle deck of cards!\n");
            return createDeck();
        }

        return deck;
    }

iii) InitialDraw

private static Deck initialDraw(Deck deck, Hand player, Hand dealer)
{
    deck = checkDeck(deck);
    drawFromDeck(deck, player); // drawing players card
    deck = checkDeck(deck);
    drawFromDeck(deck, dealer); // drawing dealers card
    deck = checkDeck(deck);
    drawFromDeck(deck, player); // drawing players card
    deck = checkDeck(deck);
    drawFromDeck(deck, dealer); // drawing dealers card

    System.out.print("Dealers Hand:");
    dealer.displayHand();
    System.out.print(" = " + dealer.getHandTotal() + "\n");
    System.out.print("Players Hand:");
    player.displayHand();
    System.out.print(" = " + player.getHandTotal() + "\n");

    checkInitialDraw(player, dealer);
    return deck;
}

iv) In Main :

deck = initialDraw(deck, playersHand, dealersHand);

I have suggested changes only for one set of things, you can use the same principle to organize the other functions.

Answer 2

 if(deck == null)
    return createDeck(deck);
else if(deck.isEmpty())
{
    deck = new Deck(DECKSIZE);
    System.out.print("Deck is empty! You must recreate and reshuffle deck of cards!\n");
    return createDeck(deck);
}
else
    return deck;

}

Try this