Aussie superstitions that bring good luck
From cricket players to the average Joe
G’day battlers, Joe Fortune here talking all things superstitions, and some of the best examples of fortune seeking comes from our Aussie cricketers. Forget four-leaf clovers or rubbing Buddha bellies, these blokes in the green caps are operating on a whole different wavelength. So let’s have a quick look at what they’re up to and what rituals you might do when trying to bring some fortune when playing at a casino.
Socks, Carrots and Towels
Let’s kick things off with the lesser-sung heroes of Ashes oddities. Matthew Wade, for example, had a form-slump fix so bizarre it could only exist in cricket: every time he was batting like a busted shopping trolley, he’d call up David Hussey for a fresh pair of socks. Straight out of the packet. Brand new. And apparently those magical Hussey socks turned his form around like clockwork.
Then there’s Joe Burns, whose quirk jumped straight out of a Looney Tunes sketch. Back in the day, he’d shovel carrots by the dozen to improve his eyesight… Burns must’ve thought he was one snack away from x-ray vision. And of course, we can’t overlook Adam Zampa, owner of what might be the world’s most unhygienic lucky charm: the grotty towel. A mini towel he hangs from the front of his trousers, allegedly unchanged for three or four seasons. Teammates dead set refuse to touch it, some aren’t sure it’s even white anymore, but Zamps swears by it!
Bails Up
Next up, Nathan Lyon. Nathan prefers a ritual as mysterious as the man himself rolling the bails. Every time he comes on to bowl, or maybe even every over, he wanders up, gives the bails a little twirl, and carries on like nothing happened. This somewhat backfired against the English when our nemesis Stuart Broad did it twice in the 2023 Ashes and took a wicket on both occasions with the very next ball!
The King of Quirks
Finally, we arrive at the Mount Olympus of cricketing superstition, Steve Smith. Did you know he used to avoid eating duck before a match… until he accidentally did before the 2015 Lord’s Test and promptly belted a doubleton. After that you can be sure that duck was back on the menu! But the real masterpiece is his shoelace saga.
During the IPL, his pants were so tight he couldn’t fold them the usual way, which meant one terrifying thing: his shoelaces were visible. And Smithy can’t cope with that. So, he got the physio to tape his shoelaces to his footy socks. He scored a ton that night. And like all great superstitions once it works, you’re stuck with it forever. He’s even spoken to his kit provider about designing laceless cricket shoes just so he never has to look at laces again.
How Casino Players Make Good Fortune
Australia might be the land of science, sunshine and some common sense… but let’s be honest, we’re also bloody superstitious. We won’t walk under ladders, we tap the steering wheel when we see a magpie, and we apologise to kookaburras like they’re weather gods deciding if we get rain tomorrow. Somewhere along the line, we turned “she’ll be right” into “she’ll be right if I do my weird little ritual first.”
Some sports fans or casino players won’t change seats while they are winning. Tradies swear by lucky hi-vis shirts that should have been retired five contracts ago. And plenty of us in the country won’t start a road trip without giving the dashboard a reassuring pat, like they’re calming a nervous horse.
But if you want to see prime-grade superstition in the wild, look no further than the casino floor.
Look I know you casino players are your own magical species… Roulette punters rub the table like it’s a genie lamp, whispering sweet nothings to the wheel. Some of you won’t sit down until they’ve walked clockwise around the table. Others insist on standing as apparently sitting kills the winning vibe! A few even swear the luck changes when a certain song plays, so the playlist gets treated like sacred scripture.
Craps players often blow on the dice, which is either a ritual for luck… or a sneaky way to moisturise the cubes, who knows. Then there’s the old favourite: never let someone else touch your chips. That’s practically a sacred law. And don’t get a gambler started on table heat if they’re winning, nobody moves, nobody speaks, nobody breathes too loudly, because luck is fragile and easily frightened.
Online Casino Rituals
Now, you’d think once Aussies moved from the casino floor to the comfort of the couch, the superstitions would settle down. Not a chance. If anything, online casino rituals are even stranger because there’s no one around to judge you while you do them as you look to get an advantage when playing at Joe Fortune.
For starters, there’s the classic lucky sitting position Some players swear they win more lying on their left side, others reckon crossing their legs blocks the energy, and a surprising number of you Aussies have one very specific winning couch dent and refuse to sit anywhere else. Then there’s the refresh ritual, players hitting the account button three times before spinning, like you’re rebooting your luck. And we all know some players who even do a little warm-up spin on the lowest bet first, claiming it wakes the machine up gently.
And don’t get me started on the people who play only when their favourite footy socks are on, or when their dog is sitting in the room, or when the house is perfectly quiet, or when it’s not quiet enough… But the most common ritual of all is The Victory Spin. Even after a big win, Aussies love doing one last spin for the road, as if the universe needs a farewell handshake.
At the end of the day, online or offline, we’re all creatures of habit chasing a spark of magic to bring some good fortune and hey, if wearing mismatched socks while spinning the reels makes you feel luckier, I say, ‘Go for it!’