Why does if loop in Java run while condition is false? [duplicate]

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I am novice at Java programming and am writing a short code to run a game of "Nim," a game where counters are removed from one of three stacks by individual players. Because I am dealing with manual inputs, I have created two methods to handle this:

1. checkNumInput()

2. checkPileInput()

I am pretty sure that the problem comes from the if statement within the checkPileInput() function, but I am not sure.

Any help would be much appreciated (even if I need to look to another part of my code)! :)

checkPileInput() method below:

        System.out.println(playerHold + ", which pile to take from (A, B or C)?");
        whichPile = keyboard.next();

        if((whichPile == "A")^(whichPile == "B")^(whichPile == "C")^(whichPile == "a")^(whichPile == "b")^(whichPile == "c")){

            break;

        }

        else{
            System.out.println("\nPlease choose A, B or C."); //Executed even when checkLoop is equal to one of the variables in the if statement above.
        }

Potentially troublesome portion of main method below:

            playerHold = p1;

            NimRedo.checkPileInput();
            NimRedo.checkNumInput();


            if(total == 1){
                System.out.println("Player 1 has won!");
                break;
            }

            playerHold = p2;

            NimRedo.checkPileInput();
            NimRedo.checkNumInput();

P.S. I have yet to start learning of Enum and Exceptions in Java so ideally I would like to stay away from using those at the moment however I am still open to suggestions on them.