How close were Monday night’s games?  Our lineup included a pair of three-way tiebreakers, while another one of our venues proved why a number of its teams could make some noise at the upcoming World Series.  Can you believe we’re just 20 days from crowning the 15th Pour House Trivia champion?  On to the recaps:

MONDAY’S STATS AND FACTS (39 teams across seven venues):

Highest Overall Score: PC Principals (Basic Burger) with 174

Highest Score After Round 4: PC Principals with 164

** Basic Burger featured four teams that reached 160 points by the end of the final round. **

Highest First-Half Score: PC Principals with 92

Perfect 21 (correct on all wagering questions): PC Principals and The Jeff King Experience (Il Forno)

–> Monday’s halftime page featured silhouettes of cartoon characters and novel title anagrams.  It played to an average of 17.4, with 26% of our teams scoring a perfect 20 points.

–> Our 6-4-2 question was similarly difficult, as 23% of our teams scored six points by knowing the main settings of the Broadway musical “Elf” (yes, there’s a new Broadway adaptation).

MONDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (58.4% success rate):

–> Designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon as part of a 1957 competition, which landmark located nearly 10,000 miles from Denmark was completed ten years behind schedule at a cost of over 13 times more than the original budget?  (you’ll find the answer later in this blog)

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DRP in Alexandria, VA

I’m back!  Thanks to everyone at DRP and all of our teams for treating my colleague Austin well.  I think y’all surprised him with just how knowledgeable and strategic everyone was, especially going into the Final Question from last week’s game.  You did it again, with a very close game going into the Final Question this week, the same week that we start handing out invitations for the Virginia Playoffs on June 3.  The World Series is on June 11, so it’s all to play for tonight in the next-to-last week of our season.  Let’s see what happened…

We started Round 1 with a question on famous Jamie’s, followed by the contents of a Cape Cod drink.  Many teams had a nice forehead smack when they learned it was a simple cranberry juice-vodka mix.  But, the light bulbs began illuminating when teams figured out a phrase said at the end of dinner and when threatening a king, leading to many “Ohhhhs”.  Round 2 featured a question on which sports team has now retired all numbers from one through nine, which most of our teams knew was the New York Yankees, who retired Derek Jeter’s #2 last week.  A question on video games from the NES led many to believe that “The Legend of Zelda” was part of the original games issued with “Super Mario Bros.” and “Duck Hunt”.

Our teams performed well on the halftime puzzle sheet featuring literary anagrams, leading to an average score of just under 18 points.  Our scores were very close at the break, including a five-way tie for fifth place.  Round 3 had a question identifying countries with “Q” in their name.  One team definitely overthought and wrote down Martinique, which is not a country, but rather a dependency of France.  The 6-4-2 question allowed some teams to catch up as only one team lost out on the gamble about the 2010 musical “Elf”.  Round 4 had a crossword-style question on Roquefort cheese, one of the most pungent of the blue cheeses.  Luckily, teams that had picked up the two bonus points did so before learning it was nine-letters long, which may have confused them if they had waited.

With Del Ray Posse, DRD, and MSC all tied for second place and nine points behind leader Wingardium Mimosa, it all came down to the Final Question about a building designed by Jorn Utzon of Denmark as part of a competition, for which he received £5000.  About half of our teams knew it was the well-known performing arts centre Sydney Opera House.  But that also meant the three-way tie still needed to be broken.  On the question “When was “Of Mice and Men” originally published?”, all of the guesses were very close to each other, but who emerged victorious?  Here is our medal table for tonight:

First Place:  Wingardium Mimosa

Second Place:  Del Ray Posse

Third Place:  DRD

We also have to say good-bye to a majority of Beer Me, who will be moving back to California this week.  Thanks for being a part of the Pour House family for the last year!  We will miss you all!  Hopefully, your Virginia counterparts will continue on their legacy.

Until next time,

~ Chris

Next week’s first category: British Monarchs

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Greene Turtle in Hagerstown, MD

Tonight at the Greene Turtle in Hagerstown, we kicked things off with a question about the film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.  We asked teams to tell us in which South American country the duo died at the close of the film, which several teams knew was Bolivia.  The audio question for today asked about songs whose titles started with ‘King of’, and it was pretty tough.  Turns out that most teams knew “King of Anything” by Sara Bareilles, but “King of the Road” and “King of Pain” were tougher.

Our halftime page asked teams to identify cartoon characters based on their silhouettes, as well as figuring out some literary title anagrams.  The anagrams proved to be rather difficult, but the silhouettes was something almost everyone did rather well with.  Heading into the final question, we had a rather unique situation where first place couldn’t be caught by second place, and second place couldn’t be caught by third place.  This led to third place being the only spot up for grabs heading into the final question, and very few teams answered correctly on a question in the category of International Landmarks.  This led to third place being taken thanks to a zero wager as well!  The final standings looked like this:

First Place: The Arrondissements of Ouagadougou

Second Place: Shirts and Skins

Third Place: The People

THERE IS NO TRIVIA NEXT WEEK AT GREENE TURTLE.  WE’LL RETURN ON JUNE 5TH.

For our next game, we’ll start with a question about #2 Hits of the 1980s, so study up and I’ll see you all then! We are OFF for Memorial Day next week, so I’ll see you in two weeks!

Until next time.

~ Chad

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Morgan Inn in Woodbine, MD

Six teams battled it out tonight as we handed out the first wave of playoff invitations down here at Morgan Inn in Woodbine.  It turned out to be a rather exciting game, as we started off in Death Valley National Park, and moved quickly to the other side of North America and visited Cape Cod.  We identified two uses for the word “check”, and recognized former President Obama’s latest accolade.  The first round also contained three celebrities all with the first name of Jamie, including this “scream queen” of the 1970’s.

Round two started off with an audio clue that included three song titles that all started with “King of…”, and moved right into the New York Yankees running out of single digit jersey numbers to retire.  We addressed Robert Downey Jr.’s return to stardom amidst his past demons, and found out the inventor of the jigsaw power tool.  Finally we went back to the 80’s for this game included with the “Deluxe Set” of the original NES.

The third round dived into a little geography with four nations that all have the letter “Q” in their names, and moved on to Greece for their most popular pita bread sandwich.  We moved over to sports for Super Bowl winning coach Jon Gruden and what he’s been up to as of late, and finally had a three clues question for this musician, which many teams managed to score a two points bonus by answering early.

The final round featured a Steinbeck novella that was adapted into a 1992 film version brought to us by actor Gary Sinise.  We referenced the Bible and it’s use of a common piece of farming equipment, examined three variations of blue cheese, and did an astronomical over under category featuring the planets of our own solar system.  Finally there was this Futurama character and a very popular internet meme to which he is associated.

The final question was a great one, and it took some strategic wagering to settle the less than five point difference between first and third place.  Here are the results:

First Place:  Morgan Station

Second Place:  Hitler Was a Bad Guy but At Least He Killed Hitler

Third Place:  Westward Ho!

Have a happy Memorial Day weekend, and I’ll see you two weeks from now with the first category of “Criminal Minds”.

Hershey’s Restaurant in Gaithersburg, MD

Things were heating up in the second half of our game at Hershey’s Restaurant in Gaithersburg on Monday!  During the first half, Dangerous Curves seemed to dominate the rest of the field.  They did not miss a single wagering question in the first rounds, as they blazed to a 16-point lead after the halftime break.  The team in second place was comprised of friends of Dangerous Curves, so throughout the ENTIRE second half, there was some SERIOUS back and forth smack talk from BOTH of the tables about how the game was going to end!

To their credit, that second place team did get back to only ten points down by the final question.  As expected, our top team wagered just three points, while the rest of the field went “all in” with the full 12-point wager.  It was a GREAT battle to see, but both teams got the final correct, so tonight we had Cuba Libre finish in third place!  A great battle and our second place finish went to Left Shark!  Back in the house after a little travelling hiatus was our first place finisher, welcome home Dangerous Curves!

Our winners chose a THREE-PART AUDIO question for next week’s first category: 1980’s Hair Metal Bands.  So study up and join us for a good time this Monday at Hershey’s Restaurant!

~ Jon J

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Uno Pizzeria in Frederick, MD

Another beautiful Monday evening, which meant another rousing game of Pour House Trivia in the books here at Uno Pizzeria in Frederick!

Highlights of the Night:

In “King-of-Tough-Questions”: The Audio question was a doozy tonight, with a couple of teams flashing me exasperated looks all the way up until I called time, and past it.  To be fair, I had never heard either of the first two songs either so I could sympathize.

In “Who-Knows-That??”: What in the world is Gyromite?? I have never heard of this particular game, and have no idea what it entails. Duck Hunt was gettable tonight if you connected Zapper to it, but I will have to google Gyromite tonight because I’m not entirely convinced it’s a game.

In “Deja-Voodoo”: The novel “Of Mice and Men” got past several teams on the halftime puzzle page tonight.  So I should’ve known that when we ask a question explicitly about it, there’s going to be trouble.  The number of teams I had to tell to “just look at the flowers”; far too high.  If that joke is too dark for you, one of my teams came up with it. And if you don’t get that joke, you need to read “Of Mice and Men”…

Our scores were extremely close all night long, as no team managed a lead of more than two points at the end of any round.  So smart wagers were crucial on tonight’s final, and in the end it went down like this:

In third place tonight, Tequila Mockingbird!

In second place tonight, Firebreathing Rubber Duckies!

In first place tonight, as a solo, Stink Floyd!

Great game tonight guys, with a tough finish.  Next week we’ll kick things off with a (wide-open) question on the category of Machines.  Should be…interesting?  Maybe?  I dunno seems kinda boring to me, but whatever!  See you next week!

Until then,

~ Ian

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Basic Burger in Arlington, VA

Another packed house tonight at Basic Burger in Arlington!  Y’all are making me one proud trivia mama!  Nine teams joined us for some pre-Memorial Day weekend trivia tonight.  Port City was here again with some awesome prizes and samples – woot!  Round 1 went so well, nothing really stood out as a tough question – except for some of the answers to the ingredients of a Cape Cod cocktail – gin?  Blech, only vodka and cranberry juice, my dears.  All nine teams earned their five-point category bonuses in this round.

Round 2 got tougher off the bat with our audio clue.  I thought it might be easy since the question itself gave part of each song title “King of…”  But it seems that not many are familiar with The Police’s “King of Pain” or Sarah Bareilles’ “King of Anything”.  Only PC Principals and Walking Talking Stephen Hawking knew all three songs.  The last question of the round included another bonus that stumped our teams.  I guess I wasn’t the only who didn’t have a Deluxe Set Nintendo Entertainment System, because only Kitten Mittens knew the two OTHER games that came with “Super Mario Bros.”: those were “Duck Hunt” (don’t say it too fast now!) and “Gyromite” (never heard of it!).

The halftime puzzle page had a near record number of perfect scores, these guys know their classic lit anagrams.  The most missed question was our Actresses and Their Roles category.  Only three of our teams correctly named Dorothy Dandridge as the first African-American actress to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Lead Actress.  This group surprisingly knows their current musicals, with half our teams correctly guessing “Elf” after the six-point clue in 6-4-2 question.

The first question of Round 4 about literary characters gave our teams the most pause…I could tell so many had it at the tip of their tongues but some just missed it.  When asked to name the two main characters in “Of Mice and Men”, some teams could name one and not the other.  “I will hug him, and squeeze him, and call him GEORGE!”  It was George and Lennie, and while some remembered John Malkovich was in the 1992 movie, it was his co-star Gary Sinise who also directed and produced the film.  Round 4 ended with a three-way… tie for second place, so wagers and final answers were really important.  In the end MOST of the teams correctly answered the final question, leading to a tiebreaker between Walking Talking Stephen Hawking and Giant Meteor.  The latter was closer to naming the year “Of Mice and Men” was published and secured their spot.  Your winners were:

First Place:  PC Principals

Second Place:  Giant Meteor 2017

Third Place:  Walking Talking Stephen Hawking

Next week’s first category:  Classic Children’s Literature

THERE IS NO TRIVIA NEXT WEEK AT BASIC BURGER.  WE’LL RETURN ON JUNE 5TH.

Cheers,

~ Kate

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Il Forno in Frederick, MD

Teams must be prepping mentally for the post-season because we were missing a good chunk of our regular teams tonight.  With the absence of some teams would it be time for a new champion here at il Forno?  Well, it was unlikely as Jeff King Experience had returned once again to add to their insurmountable lead as the Season XV House Champion.  Tonight they looked to grab another 20 points and that sweet sweet cash prize money!  Out to stop them were the efforts of Much More Deeper, Alternative Facts, and a few more of our regular teams!

After the first half, it was Jeff King who jumped into the lead, but their lead wasn’t unstoppably strong.  Much More Deeper was back by a mere four points and they looked to Round 3 to maybe give them some help to catch up.  Well, unfortunately for them, Round 3 only helped the Jeff King Experience add to their score, tossing us a Classic Hollywood question that nearly wiped out the bar!  Halle Berry played her, the first African-American woman nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars.  Her name was Dorothy Dandridge and only the Jeff King Experience picked up points on that one!  A strong get!

Going into the fourth round, Jeff King Experience still led, and the slate of questions helped increase their lead, getting bonus points on a Cheese question and being one of the few to get wager points for the rest of the questions in the round!  Jeff King led by nine points going into the final.  The category was International Landmarks.  Much More Deeper was in a pickle because they were up 13 points on the third place team, meaning they could lock in second place if they bet zero.  The only problem: if they bet zero, they throw away a chance at first as JKX had no reason to bet more than four points.

Much More Deeper opted for the free money, locking in a zero bet meaning that the final question was nearly pointless.  MMD takes their free 2nd place prize (even though they got the final correct).  The Jeff King Experience wins another (got the final too, so it didn’t matter).  Third place to Alternative Facts who got the final right too and came up just a point shy of second place!  The bets were quite defensive but they didn’t matter in the end, everyone in the top three answering the final correctly, and the placements not shifting at all.

That’s a wrap!  We’ve got post-season games starting NEXT SATURDAY, JUNE 3rd, so come out next Monday to get your last game in before the playoffs!  We’ll be here, hopefully you will too!  Until then 😉

~ Bill