A record night of trivia on Tuesday, as we rolled out 17 games across four states!  We pulled our final question out of the Good Book, and it caused quite a stir at many of our venues.  Check out which teams topped the leaderboards:

TUESDAY’S STATS AND FACTS (111 teams across 17 venues):

–> Highest Overall Score: Comfortably Dum (Champion Billiards) with 169

–> Highest Score after Round 4: Wingardium Triviosa with 160

–> Highest First Half Score: Fill Stick (Orioles Nest) with 90

–> Perfect 21 (correct on all wagers and final): Wingardium Triviosa, Kelly’s Heroes (Top Golf)

–> Our halftime page featuring Lego caricatures and Olympic events garnered an average score of 17.1, with about 21% of our teams scoring a perfect 20 points.

TUESDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (27.3% success rate):

–> Believe it or not, this word originates from the Bible, as it was the name of a great hunter.  However, due to Bugs Bunny’s sarcastic use of this word, it has come to be synonymous with someone of below-average intelligence.  (you’ll find the answer later in this blog)

_________________________________________________________________

Whole Foods Market in Ashburn, VA

I had to travel a little bit on Tuesday night for my first time hosting a game in Ashburn, Virginia, here at the restaurant in the Whole Foods Market!  I got there a little later than I would have liked, but there was a certain team that helped me with where to set up and even gave me a hand with some of my equipment!  Maybe it was Karma catching up quickly for that, but that team ended up winning tonight by a BIG margin at the end!  They played so well that they actually had a 32 point lead going into the final question and were guaranteed the win no matter what they wagered or answered on the final!  There were still two more teams that finished in the top three for prizes however, and after the final question was asked and answered, we had the Anchors finish in third place, while second place went to Team J.L.  They said this was their first victory for trivia here, so I would love to congratulate a very helpful team named Clueless for their 1st place VICTORY!

IMPORTANT NOTE: OUR NEXT GAME OF TRIVIA WILL BE JULY 11th (the SECOND Tuesday of the month)

The winner’s choice category when we reconvene here on July 11th will be The Titanic (the SHIP, not the movie).  So have a great World Series and then a fantastic 4th of July, and we’ll see everyone on the 11th!!

~ Jon J

_________________________________________________________________

Capitol City Brewing in Arlington, VA

Tonight was our post-season game here at Capitol City Brewing in Shirlington.  So, gameplay was a bit more relaxed and easy-going.  That was a good thing as my computer was acting wonky, unable to play tonight’s music and my Excel spreadsheet crashing.  Because of that, there was some considerable delay in tonight’s game.  But, I thank all the teams for bearing with me through these technical difficulties.  Of course, a big thanks to all the teams for welcoming me here.  Austin will be back next week.

So, Round 1 started off with the TV show “Twin Peaks” and a Presidentially-named sheriff.  It was a bit difficult for those who weren’t fans of the show.  But, teams got a nice reprieve with a question on Reagan National Airport, a mere four miles away.  Round 2 had a trap as we asked for a scientific occupation from the Greek meaning “star sailor”.  Many unfortunately thought “astronomer”, but a sailor in Greek is “nautes”, similar to where we get “nautical”.  Then, we asked another difficult question on Jake the Jailbird and Officer Edgar Mallory.  Some teams said “Clue”, but if they had known a jailbird was logically in jail and Mallory was a police officer, they could put the two corners together of In Jail/Just Visiting and Go to Jail on Monopoly.

Round 3 had more traps as teams had to identify the organ that produces T-cells.  Many thought the “T” meant thalamus or thyroid gland, but only the thymus is located in the chest cavity.  Then, a question on the second books of literary series caused many to misremember the books in the “Song of Ice and Fire” series and the pseudo-literary series “Twilight”.  However, teams did much better in Round 4 picking up bonuses on the Nashville Predators and “Chappelle’s Show” sketches.

The Final Question was quite difficult as it asked for a Biblical hunter that now comes to mean a less-intelligent person today.  Only one team got it, meaning they skyrocketed up the leaderboard as everyone else slipped downwards.  What did that mean for our medal table?

First Place:  Show Me on the Doll

Second Place:  Salt and Pepper

Third Place:  Pilsners of Azkaban

Next week will not only have Austin returning, but will be the start of our Summer Fling 2017!  So come one, come all to be the first to plant your flag as our first winners of the season!

Until next time,

~ Chris

Next week’s first category: Iron Maiden

_________________________________________________________________

Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD

Coming soon…

Next week’s first category:  “Wonder Woman” (2017 film)

_________________________________________________________________

Cugini’s Restaurant in Poolesville, MD

Thanks again to everyone for joining me on this beautiful Tuesday night for some Pour House Trivia here at Cugini’s in Poolesville.  We hosted ten teams tonight as some new faces came out to play, making tonight’s game near standing room only!  The first round was successful for all of the teams, with subjects ranging from Reagan National Airport, to these classic sneakers of yesteryear:

We also took a look at the return of this romantic TV show.

We then finished off round one with some celebrity jailbirds, including this guy (who is out of jail now!):

Round two, as always, began with an audio clue and song title featuring body parts in their titles, featuring artists such as Gloria Estefan, Creed, and Kelly Clarkson. We then moved on to these “star-sailors”…

Then on to this truly lovely lady:

Also found in round two were two minor characters from Monopoly, and an unfortunate incident involving a recently elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Round three proved a bit tougher, and next to the final, contained the toughest question of the night, which was about this gland.

We moved on to some novel series, or more specifically, the second books in series such as Harry Potter, Twilight, and A Song of Ice and Fire. We went back to the 80’s with the Oscar winning film “Out of Africa”, and then back even further to the 70’s and the hit rock band Kansas.  Ending round three was this former Microsoft device, which failed in its attempt to compete with the iPod.

Final round started with three celebs who all share the same last name.

We also rolled into the Stanley Cup finals with three clues for the Nashville Predators, and then took a quick trip to the second most populous city in Oklahoma, which is Tulsa. We moved into the realm of Japanese martial studies with the “throwing star.”

The last question dealt with Dave Chappelle and his lampooning of two artists of the 80’s.

The final question was a tough one, with only one team submitting the correct answer.  Here are the results:

First Place:  MoMo

Second Place:  Drunk and Disorderly

Third Place:  Never Mind

Best of luck at the World Series this Sunday, I will see you there. Remember that Summer Fling points start next week, where our first category will be “Wallace & Gromit”.

~ Ronnie

_________________________________________________________________

Orioles Nest in Frederick, MD

After a week off for vacation, I made my return to The Orioles Nest with the Summer Fling Season kicking off next week.  This week our game began a question about the film ‘Idiocracy’, specifically discussing how characters are named after brand names in that weird future.  We also had a fun audio question about songs with body parts in the title as well.  Turns out Gloria Estefan (“Get On Your Feet”) was by far the hardest part, but Creed (“With Arms Wide Open”) and Kelly Clarkson (“Behind These Hazel Eyes”) were much easier.

For halftime we asked teams to identify TV/movie franchises based on Lego depictions, as well as matching nations to the sport they have the most medals in.  Teams did really well on this page, with there being several perfect scores among the teams, so nice work everyone!  In the second half things got a bit tighter, especially thanks to the human body question that wiped the field, asking for the gland in your chest known as the thymus, which is responsible for the production of T-cells.

Tonight’s final question was an interesting one, asking about word origins.  The question asked for a word which originated in the Bible as the name of a great hunter, before becoming known as a slang term for a person of below average intelligence thanks to Bugs Bunny.  The only teams that got this right happened to be already tied for first so we needed a tiebreaker.  To break the tie I asked for the birth year of Paul Newman, and both answers were super close.  However one answer was just two years closer, so they picked up the win!  The final standings ended up looking like this:

First Place:  Fill Stick

Second Place:  Suck It Trebek

Third Place: We Are Number Two

Congrats on pulling off the victory Fill Stick!   Next week we open the game with a question about 1990s Grunge Bands, so I’ll see you all then!

Until next time,

_________________________________________________________________

Senor Tequila’s in Germantown, MD

Tuesday night is back again which means its time for another game of Pour House Trivia here at Senor Tequila’s in Germantown!

Highlights of the Night:

“If-You-Can’t-Join-Em-Beat-Em”: Breaking from their usual tradition of throwing caution to the winds and playing as one mega, non-competitive team, Beer Pressure split up tonight when their number exceeded the usual seven players.  Which means the smack talk started flying thick and fast, as to which half of the veteran team would end up on top.

In “Not-the-Show-We-Deserve-But-the-Show-We-Need”: That’s really just conjecture when talking about Julie Andrews’ Netflix show “Julie’s Greenroom”.  Regardless, it wasn’t the show any of my teams knew tonight, so no bonus points for you!

In “Third-Quarter-Nose-Dive”: And then…the train went off the rails.  The third quarter smacked all the teams upside the head and did not relent, even as we got into the 6-4-2 question and round four. Thankfully, because it affected everyone pretty unilaterally, the game stayed close, but it could’ve been disastrous.  Glad we got out of that alive!

Only one team answered tonight’s final question correctly, which made all the difference in a certain in-house rivalry.

In third place tonight, the Fan Club!

In second place tonight, Beer Pressure!

In first place tonight, Peer Bressure!

Great game guys! Next week we’ll kick things off with a category all about the Simpsons character Sideshow Bob! Study up, and we’ll see you next time!

Until then,

_________________________________________________________________

FireFlies in Alexandria, VA

Happy Tuesday my twinkling Fireflies!  So happy to see six teams join us tonight, hoping more and more join us over the summer as we start a brand new season next week!  Well, the tradition of the winner’s choice question being more difficult than normal seemed to stand this week as it was the toughest question of the round.  Players were given three songs from “The Wedding Singer” soundtrack and had to name the musical acts.  Only two teams earned their wager, with no one earning the bonus.  The rest of the round was pretty easygoing, from Chuck Taylor sneakers to Chuck Woolery.  The scores were quite close, so Round 2 needed to get tougher to weed out some winners.

On the second question of the second round, ALL teams started out on the right track with “astro” when naming the scientific occupation that takes its name from the Greek for “star-sailor”, but half the teams ended it with “nomer” instead of “naut” and lost their wager.  While no one was familiar with the bonus question about Julie Andrews’ new educational show on Netflix – the best wrong answer came with the title “The Sound of Learning”.  Half of the teams missed their bonus category questions this round, so scores started to spread.

Halftime saw half of our teams earn a perfect score on the puzzle page, naming the movies and TV shows from their Lego counterparts seemed pretty easy for these players.  Round 3 saw THE toughest question of the night in the human body category.  Only Putin on the Ritz could name the gland where T-cells mature, the thymus.  Again, too many teams guessed early on the 6-4-2 question, missing out on potential points.  To get it right, most needed the four-point clue for this video game question.

Inthe final round, all of our teams could name the shared name between three famous people, but they couldn’t quite get all the FIRST names.  No one earned the bonus on Newman – they knew Paul and Randy, but Barnett, the abstract expressionist, left them exasperated.  There was a tie for second going into the final question, but the last question broke that pretty easily.  Your winners were:

First Place:  B-58s

Second Place:  Putin on the Ritz

Third Place:  Fun Squad

Next week’s first category:  Revolutionary War

See You Next Tuesday!

~ Kate

_________________________________________________________________

Shuckin’ Shack in Frederick, MD

It was great to be back at Shuckin’ Shack in Frederick as our teams gear up for the Season XV World Series!  In tonight’s game, our entire field performed quite well in the first round.  Your knowledge of female anatomy, criminal degenerates, and sneakers is strong.  The difficulty increased dramatically in the second round, as our audio question on ‘anatomical’ song titles proved to be a difficult one tonight.  Trivia Newton John was the only team to remember that Gloria Estefan’s song is entitled “Get On Your Feet”.  Teams also stumbled though a question on word origins, but several teams recovered by picking up bonus points on the question right before halftime about the Montana politician who was recently elected despite an assault charge.

The average score on the halftime puzzle page was 16 tonight, with only one team scoring a perfect 20 points.  Nice job Donner Party! Identifying movies based on Lego mini-figs is a tough business.  In the second half, teams did well with the classic rock band question and most teams were able to identify the video game character Link with enough time to pick up bonus points on the 6-4-2 question.  The final question was another toughy tonight, which created a lot of movement in the leaderboard pushing Donner Party into scoring position.  Tonight’s top three finishers:

First Place:  Book Club Babes

Second Place:  Tequila Mockingbird

Third Place:  Donner Party

Don’t worry…  your fearless, slightly disgruntled, bearded host will be back next week with his side kick Hero Dog Mollly.  I know you all like Molly better 😉

Fair Winds,

~ Mrs. Chief

Next week’s first category: “Absolutely Fabulous”

_________________________________________________________________

Top Golf in Ashburn, VA

We’re less than one week away from the World Series, and we had a packed game with ten teams coming out to play at Top Golf in Ashburn!  We had our regulars and a few new faces as well.  Many of the teams started out strong, even though we had no idea Julie Andrews has a Netflix show.  Who would have thought?  I also had some technical issues that left us music-less for a round but you guys were great about it!

Tonight’s halftime puzzle page was a bit tricky, with many of the teams struggling with the Olympics sports.  One team that had no issue was the Mind Benders, who scored the only perfect 20!  That put them in the lead, and they kept that lead for the rest of the night.

The Human Body question in the third round tripped up many teams up, as our most common (incorrect) answer was spleen.  Unfortunately, the “T” gland in the center your chest is the thymus!  Now I know…  I had to look it up – I really didn’t know what the spleen (or the thymus) did!  As we reached the final question, Mind Benders had increased their lead to five points over Kelly’s Heroes.  It was a difficult question tonight, as only two teams responded correctly, but it was our top two teams who were the only ones who proved that they were NOT Nimrods when it comes to trivia.  Mind Benders came out on top, and hopefully they’ll do the same on Sunday at World Series XV!  I can’t wait!  Here are your top three teams tonight:

First Place:  Mind Benders

Second Place:  Kelly’s

Third Place:  Margaritas To Go

Next week’s first category:  European Geography

Good luck to all of the teams at the World Series!

_________________________________________________________________

Primanti Brothers in Hagerstown, MD

If you find that you need something to do on a Tuesday night, you might be surprised if you come out to Primanti Brothers and find yourself immersed in a great game of trivia, just like our newest team, Bill’s Bombers!  Welcome guys. I hope to see you all back next week with your wives.  How did this new team do?  Read on to find out!  Five other veteran teams came out to play this lovely evening.  We kept the garage doors open on the patio and listened to classic rock all night.  Because it’s the start of a new season next week, several teams decided to go for a new team name.  At the end of the first round, Frank Poncherello (formerly AoO) was our leader.  It was kind of amazing to see five of our six teams choose board games as their bonus category in the second round; and it paid off.  Just about all of our teams new that Jake the Jailbird was from Monopoly!  At the end of the half, they’d fallen to fourth and The Bends had taken over.

We had another popular bonus in Round 4: every team chose Three Clues/One Sports Team.  Again, it was an excellent choice, as every team figured out that Barry Trotz was the first coach for the Nashville Predators. The most difficult question of the evening was in the category of The Human Body.  We didn’t have a single team figure out thymus from the clues.  Going into the final question, we had a tie for third between Bills Bombers and Frank Poncherello.  Our Biblical Word Origins question was answered correctly by just one team: it was our rookie team Bill’s Bombers!  That left Frank Poncherello in third place.  Bill’s Bombers earned 12 points, which got them the second place prize.  But The Bends had a dominating lead and couldn’t be caught.

Next week’s first category will be Harry Potter!  See you then!

~ Sean

_________________________________________________________________

The Block in Annandale, VA

The Block was great tonight!  We had a bunch of returning teams, including the Three Amigos, The Columbaes, Kappa Crabs, and Easy Comey Easy Go.  We had a few new teams too, but they picked it up real fast!

The rounds were tough but the teams persevered and climbed the latter. Kappa Crabs quickly stole the first half lead, with Schwifty and Columbaes close behind them. There were a few teams struggling, but the occasional lighter questions gave them the confidence to rise back up into the charts.

When the halftime sheet rolled around, teams breezed through the Lego questions, but were stumped by the bottom half. After half time the board was nearly completely tied up. Kappa Crabs, Schwifty, and Columbaes were fighting for the upper ranks, with the other teams close behind.

By the end, we had Kappa Crabs in third, but Schwifty and Columbaes were once again tied for first.  The tie breaker question asked when Randy Newman was born, and the Columbaes were the closest, only off by one year, so they took first place.

Overall it was a great night and I’m excited to see these teams next week!

~ Geraden

Next week’s first category: Spice Girls Lyrics

_________________________________________________________________

Blue Parrott in St. Petersburg, FL

Seven teams showed tremendous patience Tuesday through a technologically-challenged night of trivia at Blue Parrott.  My laptop decided not to work early on, but thank goodness it’s the digital age and smart phones are a thing.  Rounds moved a little bit slower, but all teams still had fun showing off their random knowledge of “Game of Thrones”, Chuck Taylor’s and Greek derivatives.

Round one was a little tougher than usual. 1990s R&B artists stumped some of our teams as did Fox’s reboot of “Love Connection”.  But they rolled through questions about astronauts, Julie Andrews, and the reporter body-slammer Republican Greg Gianforte of Montana.

The half-time sheet was tricky, but I loved seeing the guesses teams came up with for the Lego versions of popular movies.  There was some debate in round three whether glands were also organs, but many teams successfully knew the Thymus gland in the endocrine system.  Apparently, though, not many of our teams owned a Zune music player back in the day. (For the record, I did.)

Only one team successfully identified a shuriken as a throwing star — shout-out to newbies, “Mudhens”, on that one! And before we knew it, it was time for the final question. We had lots of guesses about the Biblical 0term, turned insult by Bugs Bunny.  Nincompoop and Moron were popular guesses, but it was actually Nimrod.

That brought Quizknows and Freebirds into a tiebreaker for third place. But the Freebirds won out, as they were closer with their guess of Paul Newman’s birth year — 1925. As always, congrats to all who played, and we’ll see you next week!

First Place:  Clavins

Second Place:  Parrotheads

Third Place:  Freebirds

Next week’s first category:  New Zealand Geography

~ C.J.

_________________________________________________________________

Monkey La La in Frederick, MD

Coming soon…

Next week’s first category:  Dank Memes

 

 

_________________________________________________________________

Quincy’s South in Rockville, MD

Tonight marked the final game at Quincy’s South before the World Series this Sunday, it was sure to be a very competitive game.  Our house Champions Uncle Jack were here coming off of a second place finish in the Pub Crawl behind another Quincy’s crew: Screaming Death Monkey.  Both of these teams were here tonight ready to continue the streak of strong play to see if they could take down a victory!  Other teams in the room trying to stop them included Dr. Emo, Sofa King Smart, Wingardium Triviosa, Balls Out, just to name a few!  It was jam-packed with veteran teams, surely wouldn’t be an easy victory tonight!

After the first half, it was fitting as Uncle Jack led the way though Wingardium Triviosa, who won last week, was in a dead heat with them, tied at 86 points. Other teams would need to use the 2nd half to catch up as these two squads were near perfect.  The third round saw one of the hardest questions of the night in the form of a Human Body question.  Looking for the gland that created T-cells, located on the chest. Only two teams picking up points with the Thymus.  As luck would have it, those two teams were Wingardium Triviosa and Uncle Jack, both playing their hearts out tonight, barely missing anything!

A six-point get on the 6-4-2 AND a two-point bonus on the Last Name Q of Round 4 helped push Wingardium Triviosa into the lead going into the final!  Uncle Jack was back quite a bit but were up far enough on third place that they allowed themselves to bet small.  You know a game is close when only three teams answer the final question correctly, and those three teams end up as your top three money spots; a get on the final was crucial tonight because if you missed it, you lost!

A jump from behind for Dr. Emo who nailed the final and finished a hard, fought night in 3rd place! One heck of a finish against an amazingly deep field! Congrats!  Second place went to Uncle Jack, who got the final but it wasn’t enough to catch Wingardium Triviosa who extend their win streak to two games!  Both of these top two crews will be at the World Series (Wingardium Triviosa sporting the name the Jeff King Experience). Gonna be a great one, we’ll see you guys Sunday!  As for the rest of you, I’ll see you in seven days!

~ Bill

Next week’s first category:  Italian Composers

_________________________________________________________________

Black Eyed Suzie’s in Bel Air, MD

Coming soon…

Next week’s first category:  Music Festivals

_________________________________________________________________

Casa Tequila in Purcellville, VA

What an eventful night out at Casa Tequila tonight (as this crowd is always fun!).  We had a solid performance by all with a surprise ending.  The first round started us with Sean Connery films and moved into jailed celebs, airports, and shoes. It was a good round for all, but only a few had a “Love Connection” with our final question.  That helped Tequila Mockingbird take an early lead.

Our second round audio question stumped most of our teams as well as our Greek root words, which were pretty tough tonight.  Everyone got a little pep and turned it around after hearing about Julie Andrews, some Monopoly, and an assaulting U.S. Congressman.  That audio question was the kicker though, as it was enough to propel Virgine-ya is For Lovers to our top spot.

Getting into round three, everyone must have loved the movie “Out of Africa”, but weren’t very keen on human organs.  I’m not sure if we had readers, or just fans of the screen adaptations, but our novel question went over well, as did the digital media.  Though, I’m sure I was the only one who ever owned a Zune.  We finished round three with an awesome band, Kansas and one of my favorite all time games, The Legend of Zelda for our 6-4-2 question. Virgine-ya is For Lovers held on to their lead.

Everyone had a friend in me to start the fourth round this evening and aced our first question about the Newmans.  I guess we had a crowd full of ninjas who knew their weapons as well.  Got some head scratching but some solid answers when it came to the Tennessee hockey team and kept it in the Bible Belt, crossing over Arkansas to Oklahoma.  It was “game, blouses” for most of our teams who knew “Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories” finishing round four with Virgine-ya is For Lovers with a two point lead on Thundercats.  Our final question on word origins may have left most of us feeling like nimrods but the Thundercats were celebrating, as it gave them what they needed to take the game. Thundercats took a three point victory over our reigning champs of two weeks, Just Us, while Virgine-ya is For Lovers took the third spot.

Next week’s first category:  “Doctor Who”

Thanks to everyone for a great night!

~ Aaron

_________________________________________________________________

Outta the Way Cafe in Derwood, MD

Outta the Way Café was hot with competition tonight.  Our most difficult question of the night dealt with the human body, as no team was able to come up with the correct response of ‘thymus’ when asked about the endocrine gland in which T cells mature.  We had a very close game towards the end, only two points were separating the first, second, and third teams, before the final question.  Only one team was able to come up with the correct response of Nimrod (yes, Nimrod!), and that made all of the difference.  A special thank you to all who came out for great food, drinks and fun tonight. Whether you’re playing by yourself or with a team you are guaranteed to have fun at this venue.  Here are our top three teams tonight:

First Place:  Flat Stanleys

Second Place:  Titanic Swim Team

Third Place:  Goddammit Irene

Next week’s first category:  Steven Spielberg Films