Monday night proved to be an interesting game of Pour House Trivia.  Many teams cruised through tonight’s set with relative ease, with about half of our field eclipsing the 140 point barrier by the end of the final round.  If confidence was riding high, a difficult final question shot that confidence down (so to speak…), but a few teams prevailed in epic fashion.  Read on to find out who topped the leaderboard:

MONDAY’S STATS AND FACTS (50 teams across seven venues):

Highest Overall Score: Del Ray Dummies (DRP) with 163

Highest Score After Round 4: Arrondissements of Ouagadougou (Greene Turtle) with 164

Highest First-Half Score: Del Ray Posse, That’s a Niner (Greene Turtle), Arrondissements of Ouagadougou, and The Jeff King Experience (Il Forno) with 92

Perfect 21 (correct on all wagering questions):  Though several teams ran their perfect night through the first four rounds, a rather difficult final question meant that no team was able to secure the Perfect 21 tonight.

–> Monday’s halftime page featured pictures of celebrities hanging out and a little 50 State word play.  The page played to an average of 17.5, with about 17% of our teams scoring 20 points.

–> Our 6-4-2 question was more difficult, as only eight teams knew how many points are awarded in Canadian football for punting the ball through the back of the end zone (yes, CFL teams actually score one point for that less-than-exhilarating feat).

MONDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (10.0% success rate):

–> What highest-grossing film of 1974 was set exactly 100 years earlier, in the year 1874? (you’ll find the answer later in this blog)

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DRP in Alexandria, VA

It’s always great to guest-host at DRP, right in my own beautiful neighborhood of Del Ray!  We had a lively crowd of fourteen razor-sharp teams that laughed, sang, booed, and cheered (quite literally – see below) their hearts out, right up to the Final Question.  Here’s how it all went down:

Round One was smooth sailing for most teams, as it often is.  Our winner’s choice on the French & Indian War reminded us that even our greatest national heroes had to learn from their early mistakes.  After a few more questions on advertising athletes, our opposably-thumbed cousins, and U.S. geography, fully six out of fourteen teams had posted perfect scores of 36 points, with the rest of the teams not far behind.

The Round Two audio clue was “feast or famine” – seemed like teams either took down 11 points or none at all.  I definitely appreciated the soulful singing along to the acoustic cover of “Everlong”, coming from multiple tables!  Teams that threw out their one-point wager there were able to make it up later on in the round, provided they knew enough about itinerant NBA franchises, three-man comedy dream teams, and months-of-the-year trivia.  After halftime, most teams were in strong positions, none more so than the Del Ray Posse, who scored an absolutely perfect 92 points through the first half.  Wow!  Eat Ham, H.R. Pufnstuff, and TBD were right up there, too, with scores of 91, 90 and 89 respectively.

Ways to Spell “Spaniard”, According to DRP: SPAINIARD, SPANNIARD, SPAINARD, SPAINERD

I was highly impressed by how well the DRP squads performed in Round Three, particularly dealing with “Sleepless in Seattle” and the Reuters news agency.  I thought those were tough!  But perhaps the highlight of the night came after the question about a certain rowdy Germanic tribe… The Marble Mafia briefly took over the bar, leading us in a full-throated rendition of their alma mater’s cheer.  Gooooo Vandals!

Things Nobody Knows: Where to watch Tyler Perry’s show (no, not BET), demolished Philadelphia stadiums, rules of Canadian football

In Round Four, the Del Ray Posse expanded their lead to the point that some teams nearly lost heart.  After a battery of questions on R&B crooner-actors, Newton’s Second Law, and Canadian MLB stars, these guys were just about (but not quite) untouchable going into the Final Q, as they led the second-place team (the Del Ray Dummies, who enjoyed a heroic surge in the fourth round) by eleven points.  It helped that they were the only team in the house to correctly guess all three of the recently retired Monopoly tokens – Tip of the Hat!

How to Get Booed: So I’m not up-to-speed on Hollywood actresses from 50 years ago.  Sue me!  Turns out, Deborah Kerr’s name is pronounced “CAR”, not “CARE” or “CUR” like you might think.  Live and learn!

In the Final, teams had to figure out a hit 1974 film that was set in 1874.  Almost nobody got this right, as most squads picked “Butch Cassidy”, “Rooster Cogburn”, or other more straightforward Westerns from that era.  Would you believe the correct answer was Blazing Saddles?  “It’s twue, it’s twue!”  The only two teams to get that right were the Tyler Stone Project  and the Del Ray Dummies, who just nosed out the Posse with a gutsy wager to achieve a thrilling come-from-behind win!  Your top three:

First Place:  Del Ray Dummies

Second Place:  Del Ray Posse

Third Place:  Tyler Stone Project

Thanks again for the warm welcome and a really fun night.  Chris (as far as I know) will be back with microphone in hand next week – be there!

Next week’s first category:  “Blazing Saddles”

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Greene Turtle in Hagerstown, MD

After a one week hiatus we were back at The Greene Turtle in Hagerstown tonight, and things were close up until the final round.  The last round proved to be costly for some teams, but really paved the way for our eventual winners, The Arrondissements of Ouagadougou.  We started the game out with a question about Baltimore Ravens History, as Shirts and Skins got to enjoy their status as winners for an extra week.  We asked about the Ravens first two draft picks, which will both end up being Hall of Famers, with one already being inducted three years ago.  Most teams knew Ray Lewis was one of them, with Jonathan Ogden being the somewhat tougher one.

The audio clue was about acoustic covers, and this time we heard acoustic versions of ‘Layla’ by Eric Clapton, ‘Everlong’ by The Foo Fighters, and ‘I Kissed A Girl’ by Katy Perry.  This one was actually pretty tough for most, especially since the Katy Perry song was extremely different from the original.  Halftime today was also pretty tough for some, where we had pairs of unlikely celebrities pictured, asking teams to name them (although I don’t know if Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe are all that unlikely, aside from how young Wayne was).

The roughest part of the page was the part about state names and postal abbreviations.  Turns out there are several states whose abbreviations are at the end of other state names; the example we gave was Nebraska (NE) is at the end of Maine.  In the second half we had a question about actors/singers in film, and asked for the singer who is known by his first name and appeared in the Fast & Furious films.  Turns out that teams forgot about Tyrese (Gibson) and I got a ton of Ludacris answers.  The add a letter question was interesting too, as most teams had Moreau but couldn’t figure out where to add a letter, with us looking for (Justin) Morneau.

Heading into the final question, the Arrondissements of Ouagadougou held a sizable lead and the final turned out to be a brutal one in The Box Office.  The question asked about the highest grossing film of 1974, which was set exactly 100 years prior.  Nobody got ‘Blazing Saddles’ as the answer, with several teams putting the same wrong answer of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’.  The final standings for tonight ended up as follows:

First Place:  The Arrondissements of Ouagadougou

Second Place:  Quality Guesswork

Third Place:  3rd: That’s a Niner

Congrats to Ouagadougou on another impressive win!  Next week we will start out with a question that is actually about “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, so study up!  Also, playoff invitations will be going out next week, so be ready for that!  I’ll see you all then!

Until next time,

~Chad

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Morgan Inn in Woodbine, MD

As we are getting closer to the playoffs and World Series, teams need to get in here to Morgan Inn and score those standings points!  We started off with the winner’s choice question on Marquette University, which did well for all the teams tonight.  The rest of the first round contained subjects such as the shared taxonomic order between us and gorillas, Lebron’s special version of Sprite, and the two states that border both Virginia and West Virginia.  We also had a “little” three part question which contained Louisa May Alcott, Annie, and this rock-n-roll icon of the 1950’s.

Hershey’s Restaurant in Gaithersburg, MD

It was nice being back at Hershey’s Restaurant in Gaithersburg for Monday night trivia! I  was out of town last week and we were off the week before so it was great to be back in to host a game here.  There was a first time team that joined us this evening, and they put in a fantastic showing in their debut performance.  They actually had a perfect game going until the puzzle page!  By the time we reached the final question, their lead was so big, even if they wagered 12 points and got it wrong, they still would have won!

Finishing in third place tonight was I’m just Making This Up as I Go Along, while second place went to L & N, and with an impressive game for their first PHT victory ever, our first place prize went to newcomers On Sail!!  As our winners, they selected Washington Redskins History for next week’s first category, so study up and come join us for a game on Monday at Hershey’s Restaurant!

~ Jon J

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Uno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD

I think the Mother’s Day feasts (that’s totally a thing) may have gotten to some teams, but here at Uno Pizzeria in Frederick, we hosted a fierce game of Pour House Trivia nonetheless.

Our game tonight became a dogfight between the top two teams, as they traded the lead back and forth between rounds. The Acoustic Audio question to open the second round turned out to be a tough one tonight, featuring the “Unplugged” versions of “Layla” by Eric Clapton, “Everlong” by Foo Fighters, and a slow, jazzy version of “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry.  Only one team correctly identified two of the songs, and no one getting all three.

Stink Floyd kept the game tight at the break by turning in the only perfect halftime sheet.  They proceeded to increase the lead by knowing both of the venues which hosted the original Live Aid concerts (Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philly).  The 6-4-2 question saw a lot of aggressive eye-rolling at the foreign games and sports clues.  And the final was a total whiff; everyone put a western film, but no one figured “Blazing Saddles” as the highest grossing film of the year.  Let’s see who our top finishers were this evening:

In third place tonight, the Con Men!

In second place tonight, Tequila Mockingbird!

In first place tonight, Stink Floyd, as a solo no less!

Next week we’ll start the game off with Losing Teams Other than the Capitals! Hehehe. See you next time!

Until then,

~ Ian

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Basic Burger in Arlington, VA

I missed everyone after our little hiatus last week, thanks so much for packing Basic Burger tonight!  The rain has lifted, the sun is out and the birds are chirping – however most of our teams were singing the blues after our first question regarding the TV series “Twin Peaks”.  Players were asked to name the “Twin peaks” actress who went on to play an adult film star.  While Amanda Seyfried DID play Linda Lovelace (she’s too young), and Julianne Moore appeared in “Boogie Nights”, it was Heather Graham who fit the bill on that question.  Only PCP who CHOSE the category got that one!  Luckily no other team chose that as their bonus question and ALL teams ended up earning their bonus points in the first round.

Scores remained close through the second round, these guys are some smarty parties!  The toughest question in this round came was our Three Clues / One Month question.  A couple of teams got ahead of themselves thinking they knew which month had the garnet birthstone.  While the majority of our teams answering correctly (with January), two teams missed their bonus this round, widening the score gap.

Halftime was a cinch for these teams with the lowest score at 17.  The biggest fumble in the third round came in the first question – a three-parter about the film “Sleepless in Seattle”.  Half the teams answered all three parts correctly, but the most missed question concerned which 1957 movie inspired the film.  Many could not REMEMBER the iconic “An Affair to Remember” with Cary Grant.  The final round saw many teams biting their nails as many questions were missed and half the teams did not earn their bonus points.  The biggest “Aw, man!” of the night was again in the first question of the round.  When asked about a “Fast and Furious actor” who topped the Billboard 200 album chart for the first time in 2015, half the teams named a co-star from “Fast and Furious 6”: Ludacris.  But he has four #1 albums, so the answer we were looking for was Tyrese Gibson.

The final question was a real head-scratcher, as teams tried to name the highest-grossing film of 1974, with the hint being that it took place in 1874.  So many teams went straight for the westerns, specifically “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (sorry, that was 1969…).  Only Walking Talking correctly named “Blazing Saddles”, pulling them into a winning rank.  Your winners were:

First Place:  Kitten Mittens

Second Place:  PC Principals

Third Place:  Walking Talking Stephen Hawking

Next week’s first category:  Arlington, VA

Cheers!

~ Kate

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Il Forno in Frederick, MD

I’ll start off saying I’m sorry that Washington sports lost yet another elimination game.  I’m also sorry for attempting a very poor Ray Romano impression.  His name never even came up in the set, not sure what prompted me to go with it but I sure hung on to THAT way too long… Le sigh…  Another night at il forno as we close in on the end of the season. We had lots of teams tonight, all of which had played before so it was a smooth run-through.

Weekly favorites The Jeff King Experience made it out yet again and looked ready to take this one down.  They managed a perfect halftime score and it helped propel them into the lead after two rounds.  Kylo Ren and Stimpy were sitting in second place; it probably would’ve been first place if they’d guessed correctly on a pair of 50/50s they had.  Twice they had the correct answer scratched out and went with the wrong one.  That hurts sometimes…

The Jeff King Experience looked to add to their lead through the third round which played tough for most teams.  We started off with a little “Sleepless in Seattle” trivia and it did NOT play well for a lot of teams.  Most everyone thought Penny Marshall directed it but it was Ms. Rom Com herself, Nora Ephron.  She also write and directed the next Hanks/Ryan team-up “You’ve Got Mail”.  Not getting Ephron hurt a lot of teams, moreso the ones who didn’t pick up “An Affair to Remember” either.  It was Mamas and Papas who were the only ones to get all three Q’s correct on that one for the extra two points!

Roaming Gnomes managed to get the six points on the 6-4-2 question while no one else did.  This helped them stay in contention.  A final category of The Box Office scared Roaming Gnomes away from betting hard so they went with a zero wager.  It helped them out a LOT as NO ONE answered the final correctly, and their zero bet gave them the highest net points after the fact.  Third place tonight went to Much More Deeper who were in second going into the final, but missed it for 12 points.  Second place went to Roaming Gnomes after a good defensive wager.  Winning tonight, another one for the Jeff King Experience.  That’s all she wrote.  Back next week!  Thanks!