Monday night featured two of our busiest trivia venues doing what they do best: cramming an excessive number of teams in for a wildly competitive game of Pour House Trivia.  Indeed, two venues topped 15 teams on Monday night – maybe there’s something about those two hosts.  One of those venues set an all-time record for attendance!  But amid those throngs of trivia teams, who stood out as the best and the brightest?

MONDAY’S STATS AND FACTS (66 teams across seven venues):

Highest Overall Score:  Kitten Mittens (Basic Burger) with 172

** Fourth time this season with the highest overall score **

Highest Score After Round 4: Kitten Mittens with 166

Highest First-Half Score:  The Jeff King Experience (Il Forno) with 91

Perfect 21 (correct on all wagering questions):  No surprise… Kitten Mittens and the Jeff King Experience scored the only ‘Perfect 21’s tonight.

–> Our Presidential-themed halftime round played to an average of 17.1, with 10% of our teams scoring 20 points.

–> About 30% of our teams scored six points on the 6-4-2 question, by remembering the recently discountined breakfast cereal from Kellogg: Product 19.

MONDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (71.1% success rate):

–> Which 20^th Century novel opens with a line referring to an animal that “moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail”?  (you’ll find the answer later in this blog)

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DRP in Alexandria, VA

Hey, Nineteen,

That’s ‘Retha Franklin.

She don’t remember the Queen of Soul.

Why are we starting off this blog with Steely Dan’s “Hey Nineteen”?  That’s because we broke a record tonight.  We had 19 teams playing Monday night Pour House trivia at DRP!!  Previously, the record was 18 teams, so tonight was really something.  And though we didn’t have “’Retha Franklin” as an answer to one of our questions tonight, we had plenty more material to challenge everyone’s brains.

It soon became clear that reputation precedes “High School Prom” as a few of our other teams recognized them and knew they had an uphill battle tonight.  Round 1 had every team earn their five-point bonus and finished up with a seven-way tie for seventh place, who were only four points behind the two first-place holders.  Round 2 had a question on the Civil War Battle of Antietam.  A few teams knew that the Union named their battles after waterways, while the Confederates named their battles after towns, which meant that six teams knew the alternate bonus answer was Sharpsburg.  Unfortunately, a few of our teams got their geography confused and thought the answer was Bull Run / Manassas.  But, a few easy questions on pearls and Napa Auto Parts, which some answered with “duh” afterwards, narrowed the gap. 

Our halftime puzzle sheet had teams identify U.S. presidents, which we purposely grayscaled, so there was no color version of it.  But, nevertheless, our teams could put the right names to the right faces and two teams got a perfect 20 here.  After that, only ten points separated our first and tenth place teams.  Round 3 was decidedly more academic as teams were surprised that they were able to figure the right answers, such as one team being super excited figuring out that Italian for “to work” was operare, which they pulled the word “opera”.  Round 4 had teams correctly identify Harrison Ford as the actor/pilot who almost collided with another plane in California.  One team even suggested that Ford could be the next star of commercials for United Airlines.

Tonight’s Final Question on Literary Quotations was on the easier side, as about two-thirds of our teams could identify the opening line from the Peter Benchley novel “Jaws”.  Because of that, we had three distinct winners and our medal table looked like this:

First Place:  HR Puff ‘n’ Stuff

Second Place:  Worst Case Ontario

Third Place:  High School Prom

Next week’s first category: The literature trilogy “Lord of the Rings”

Perhaps, next week we’ll have 20 teams playing.  Could we make that happen?

Until next time,

~ Chris

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Greene Turtle in Hagerstown, MD

This week the weather is really starting to heat up, and we had a packed house for trivia tonight!  We kicked things off with a question about Antarctic Geography, asking about Lake Vostok and what language the word Vostok is (it’s Russian!).  I liked the audio clue for the day, asking for artists who sang songs about losing.  Of course Beck showed up with ‘Loser’ and Eminem was in it too with ‘Lose Yourself’.  The tougher one was definitely Meghan Trainor though, with ‘Like I’m Gonna Lose You’.  Halftime asked teams to identify U.S. Presidents based on pictures, as well as matching films to the movie they were remade from (or made from the same source material).

The Civil War question surprised me with just how well everyone did, with almost everyone getting Antietam and Sharpsburg.  In the final round there were several questions that everyone seemed to ace that I personally had no idea about.  Apparently John Legend and Ariana Grande did a duet of the Beauty and the Beast song on the soundtrack for the new movie, which almost everyone knew.  I was also surprised that everyone knew Harrison Ford isn’t very good at flying planes, which must have been in the news recently.

The final question was about Literary Lines and most teams did rather well on this one. This led to third place going to The Arrondissements of Ouagadougou, second going to That’s A Niner, and the win going to Quality Guesswork! Congrats! Next week we open up with a question about the TV show ‘Rocket Power’ so study up! I’ll see you all then!

Until next time,

~ Chad

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Morgan Inn in Woodbine, MD

On a beautiful Monday here in Woodbine, we hosted six teams that came in from that sunshine tastiness to play some Pour House Trivia, at one point the bar was nearly packed!  We started off tonight with a trip to Disney World for the Richard Petty Driving Experience, a Disney attraction that sadly will be closing in June of this year. The first round was extremely competitive, with only one team missing a single question and most of the team’s scoring their two point bonuses.  We mixed up a Tequila Sunrise, did some alphabetized U.S. states, remembered Scooby’s annoying little nephew, and looked at a couple of Oscar misses for Tom Hanks, including this fine role from 1998:

Round two continued to be a high scoring round until the fifth question, with great scoring opportunities from an audio question featuring Eminem, a mussel’s most prized possession, and an auto parts store that you would think that you could order a bottle of Pinot.  That tragic fifth question was naming the two cities competing for the 2024 Summer Olympics, but folks made up for it with this local Civil War battlefield southwest of Hagerstown, Maryland:

Score separation started in the third round, as questions four and five did some damage.  Only one team answered question four correctly with Daniel DeFoe’s titular character, Moll Flanders, though all the teams had success with subjects such as opera, NBA jersey colors, and the tragic sinking of the RMS Lusitania.  That fifth question was yet another to which only one team scored points, and that was for this year’s return of this cult classic comedy of the 1990’s:

Most of the teams recovered well during the final round, and the scores for the top two teams were neck and neck, and third place was starting to knock on their back door.  Top scoring questions were London Fog and their wonderfully made trenchcoats, the three monopoly avenues that start with “V”, and the current territory of French Polynesia.  The biggest miss of the round was John Legend and Ariana Grande’s remake of a classic Disney tune, but the biggest hit (no pun intended) was this veteran action star and his questionable flying skills as of late:

The final question of the night featured some strategic wagering and featured a line by author Peter Benchley describing one of the all time greatest movie villains… “It’s as if God created the Devil, and gave him Jaws”.  Here are tonight’s results:

First Place:  Westward Ho! (back to back wins btw)

Second Place:  Morgan Station

Third Place:  Menace 2 Sobriety

Next week’s first category: “My Cousin Vinny”

~ Ronnie

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Uno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD

It was a beautiful Monday night tonight, which meant it was time once again for another rollicking game of Pour House Trivia here at Uno Pizzeria in Frederick!

Highlights of the Night:

In “Unexpectedly-Difficult”: If you had asked me what I thought would be the most difficult pull tonight in terms of any answer, let alone two-point bonuses, Scrappy Doo’s catch phrase would not have been anywhere near the top of my list.  And yet, there were teams who weren’t even able to pull Scrappy, so clearly I’m overestimating their knowledge of terrible cartoon characters…

In “Why-Do-You-Know-That??”: In that same vein, there would’ve been a tie for that hardest pull, between Cunard Cruise Lines and Papeete.  And yet somehow, Stink Floyd knew both of them.  Seriously, why do you know these things?  For what reasons are these bits of knowledge tucked away in your brain?

In “The-Rare-All-Two-Point-642”: It’s not often that we see a 6-4-2 where literally every team waits until the two-point clue before they have an idea, and even then we had teams miss it.  Truly a tricky turn of events!

The final was a coin flip it seemed tonight, between the literary works of “Jaws “and “Moby Dick”.  When all was said and done, the podium looked like this.

In third place tonight, the Litigators!

In second place tonight, Tequila Mockingbird!

In first place tonight, Stink Floyd! (five in a row!)

Great game everyone!  Next week we’ll kick things off with an opening question in the category of  Janet Jackson! Study up, and we’ll see you next time!

Until then,

~ Ian

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Basic Burger in Arlington, VA

A wise man once said “I came for the wine, but I stayed for the trivia…”.  So, a lucky number of seven teams did just that tonight at Basic Burger in Arlington.  Round 1 started off swimmingly for our teams, with everyone enjoying a throwback to Scrappy Doo and proclaiming “Puppy Power!”  The toughest part of the round was naming Tom Hanks’ two most recent Academy Award (and non-winning) nominations.  Almost every team could picture Tom talking to good ol’ Wilson and named “Cast Away”, but only one team remembered him earning a nomination as Captain John Miller in “Saving Private Ryan”.

Round 2 also had a couple of what I call “Game speeder-upper” questions that everyone quickly answered correctly.  But the toughest question of the round was naming BOTH cities that are in contention for the 2024 Summer Olympics – The City of Angels and The City of Lights are duking it out for that honor.  By the end of Round 2, only three points separated the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place teams.

Halftime wasn’t such a cinch – only Kitten Mittens scored perfectly when identifying presidents by photo and movie remakes.  Helen Keller Birdwatching Society scored 19 points, putting them into second place.  That is, until the doozy of Round 3 showed up.  The toughest question of the entire night showed up in question 4 about literary characters.  The Best worst answer of the night came up on this one when asked “this literary title character was created by Daniel DeFoe in 1721, who wrote of her many “Fortunes and Misfortunes” as a prostitute and con woman”.  Now, I am not familiar with “Ivana Tinkle”, but perhaps a certain president is? :p  Moll Flanders was the answer we were looking for instead, and here is where team rankings started to shift.  Round 4 started with an “either you know it, or you don’t” question about the two singers of the current Beauty and the Beast title track.  Teams only had to name one for their wager – but if they knew one, they knew both and earned the bonus.  Half the teams didn’t know either singer.  The final category WAS a bit of a cinch for most of our teams – only one missed the clue about the 20th century novel beginning “its tail moved silently through the night water…” duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun… duuunnnnnnnn dun…wait for it… dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn dunnnn…JAWS!!!  The following teams really KILLED it tonight:

First Place:  Kitten Mittens

Second Place:  PC Principals

Third Place:  The Magnificent 7

Next week’s first category:  Shark Movies (other than “Jaws”)

Cheers!

~ Kate

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Il Forno in Frederick, MD

Holy 15 teams Batman!  A huge night of trivia tonight at il Forno in Frederick!  The Jeff King Experience came back once again to extend their winning streak.  Tonight they had three players, more than what they usually play with, as it’s been a two-man team for about a month now.  They were even joined by Jeff King himself, a top tier player in the PHT community.  Was there any chance they lost tonight?  Well, we saw Sexual Chocolate stroll in tonight looking to see if they could repeat last week’s performance as they had one of the top scores across all venues!

The opening question tonight out of the gate was difficult.  The Winner’s Choice category was Fictional Rabbits, and we asked about the Rabbit of Caerbannog from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”.  This movie is one of the most famous movies of all time — I’m often mocked for not having seen it and having no desire at all to watch it.  Despite being one of the most famous movies ever, apparently there are still chunks of people who don’t actually know what the title is.  I had “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (correct), “Monty Python’s Holy Grail” (almost correct), “Monty Python’s Search for the Holy Grail” (less correct), “Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail”, and  “Monty Python and the Search into the Holy Grail” (c’mon, now you’re just adding words and paraphrasing, just give me the title!)…  I had one team turn in an incorrect response almost immediately, and it was at that point I felt like making a note to the crowd: “Guys. I need the EXACT title of the movie.  Not a description, not a paraphrase, I need the title”. I didn’t think this request was too harsh seeing as I warned teams beforehand and knowing that this movie was extremely well-known.  Even still, about one-third of the teams put their nine-point wager on this one and locked in with an incorrect title.  I felt bad but I guess people just don’t know what this movie is called.  Now we know! “Monty Python and the Holy Grail!”  Never forget.

Off to a good start, we still had a good number of teams who played nearly flawlessly going into the second half, but it was Jeff King who led with a whopping 91 points after the halftime page.  This score was achieved on the strength of a 19 on the halftime, the high score in the room.  Everything going their way, they’d go into the second half with all the momentum they needed to extend the win streak yet another week.

Round 3 saw a few tough ones including a Literature Q that just blew teams outta the water!  The Daniel Defoe heroine named Moll Flanders was apparently a fairly unknown character to a majority of the field, but three teams did pick this up.  Perhaps that question set the mood for the night, as the three teams that picked up Moll Flanders were ALSO the top 3 teams going into tonight’s final.  The Jeff King Experience led the field with a pre-final 165. Back by exactly 12 points was Sexual Chocolate; they’d need a get on the final and a miss by the leaders to have a shot at the win tonight… They wouldn’t get it.  A 66% get-rate on the final saw our top three teams finish exactly as they’d sat going in.  Another win for Jeff King!  Second place went to Sexual Chocolate, who outplayed most of the field but a few mistakes kept them from topping the JKX.  Third place went to MC, a good game for them, finishing in the money a few weeks in a row now!

We’re back next week with a first category of Maryland.

See ya then!

~ Bill