Letter? Wednesday Trivia Doesn’t Even Know ‘Er!

A seventeen-venue night of Pour House Trivia welcomed 161 total teams on Wednesday.

FIRST ROUND:

While this round started things off to a nice start with regard to our wagering questions, we provided a trio of very tough — and in one case, completely unsuccessful — bonus chances. We began with Three Clues on Utah, in which 20% of teams got bonus points for naming the state before the third clue was read. That bonus success rate ended up being the highest of this round; a question on singer-songwriter John Mayer saw 5.5% of teams know the name of his debut album, Room for Squares. One last question here dealt with the Greek Mount Olympus, but no teams got bonus points for naming Mytikas Peak as its specific home of the gods. Obviously, that also means there were no perfect scores in the opening round.

SECOND ROUND:

Wednesday’s audio question asked teams to name three song titles that each reference something from the board game Monopoly; just under half the field got all three titles for the bonus. The two most difficult wagering questions in the first half of this game came back-to-back in the second round, beginning with this:

• Among the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, which has garnered the least success for American men? They have combined to win just four singles championships over the last 60 years.

About 54% of the field correctly named the French Open, while a round-low 20% got bonus points for knowing Andre Agassi is the most recent American male to win that tournament. Next up came this bit of history:

• Which explorer is considered the “Father of New France” and founded Quebec City in 1608? He is one of the most important figures in Canadian history and today, a North American lake is named in his honor.

That man, Samuel de Champlain, was named by 52% of our teams. Perfect scores were earned by eight teams, the most of any Wednesday round.

HALFTIME:

Teams had to name TV shows from photos of police officer characters, then match fictional lands to their respective authors for Wednesday’s halftime sheet. On average, teams scored 14.8 points but 16 squads were able to put up the full 20 points. Teams were closely packed together at the top of the halftime leaderboard:

• Copper Mine Road (Sully’s): 89
• Sexual Chocolate (Memories): 89
• Stink Floyd (Belles’): 88
• Stinkfist (Idiom): 88
• Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters (Idiom): 88

THIRD ROUND:

We ramped up the difficulty on the second half’s wagering questions, but started round three relatively well with a question about trinkets and Elizabeth Banks, who played Effie Trinket in the Hunger Games film series. Our Facebook-hinted question about palm trees was next, followed by a three-parter on heist films where only 6.8% of teams earned bonus points. This question, however, became the toughest wagering query of the round:

• Which Canadian-based NHL team won its only Stanley Cup Championship after defeating the Montreal Canadiens in the 1989 Finals?

The ’89 champion Calgary Flames were guessed by 29% of the field. After that, we had this presidential question:

• Which future U.S. President led a battalion of Army troops at the Battle of Buena Vista, fought in 1847 as part of the Mexican American War?

There was a possible multiple-choice section teams could have waited for but even so, Zachary Taylor was answered by just over a third of Wednesday’s teams. Bonus points on that one were earned by 10% of teams who named him without needing any possible options. The only perfecto in the round was recorded by Flight Level Awesome (Belles’).

FOURTH ROUND:

Twenty-nine teams each earned six points by guessing Ford from a single clue in the 6-4-2. In the fourth round, we had questions about the Danube River and the upcoming Disney+ Willow series. On a question about Northern Irish singer Van Morrison, only two teams got bonus points for naming his top-charting song, Domino. At this point, we finally reached the most difficult wagering question of the night:

• Often served in the hot pot style, which Japanese dish usually consists of thinly sliced beef simmered with vegetables, soy sauce, sugar, and mirin, a beverage similar to sake?

Sukiyaki was correctly named by 6.8% of the field to get their wagering points. There were no perfect scores in this round. The top-ranked teams just before the final question can be seen here:

• Sexual Chocolate (Memories): 161
• The Gang Plays Bar Trivia (Belles’): 158
• Flight Level Awesome (Belles’): 157
• Stinkfist (Idiom): 157
• H.R. Puff ‘n’ Stuff (Hops N Shine): 156

FINAL QUESTION (56.5% success rate):

• Which six consecutive letters of the English alphabet are also letters of the Hawaiian alphabet?

Much more successful than last Wednesday, more than half the field provided the correct letters of K L M N O and P! Sexual Chocolate (Memories) provided Wednesday’s lone Perfect 21 by answering every wagering question correctly. However, the medal podium was monopolized by a single venue at the end of the night:

• The Gang Plays Bar Trivia (Belles’): 170
• Flight Level Awesome (Belles’): 169
• Stink Floyd (Belles’): 166
• Sexual Chocolate (Memories): 164
• Pterodactyl (Memories): 163
• H.R. Puff ‘n’ Stuff (Hops N Shine): 160
• Two-Wheel Tricycle (Sully’s): 159
• Fresh Off the U-Haul (Mark’s): 158
• Vixen (Memories): 158
• Suspect Tuna (TGI Fridays): 158
• Transplants (Sully’s): 158

WEDNESDAY’S WINNERS:

Moe’s Peyton Place in Springfield, VA: That’s What She Said  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Sims)

Valley Sports Grill in Middletown, MD: Areola Grande  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Green Bay Packers (pre-1990))

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: The Gang Plays Bar Trivia  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Polynesian Countries)

Memories Charcoal House in Mount Airy, MD: Sexual Chocolate  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1980s Pro Wrestling Entrance Songs)

GearHouse Brewing in Chambersburg, PA: Archived!  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Hayao Miyazaki Films)

TGI Fridays in Hagerstown, MD: Suspect Tuna  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Animated Dogs)

Idiom Brewing in Frederick, MD: Stinkfist  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1960s Reggae Music)

Axes and O’s in Sterling, VA: Comfortably Dumb  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Beekeeping)

Hops N Shine in Alexandria, VA: H.R. Puff ‘n’ Stuff  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: House of the Dragon)

Sully’s Pour House in Herndon, VA: Two-Wheel Tricycle  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Los Angeles Sports)

Falling Branch Brewery in Street, MD: Lemonheads  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1970s Rock Music)

T. J. Stone’s in Alexandria, VA: Dances With Beers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Clue (film))

Craftworx Taproom in Gainesville, VA: Sherlock Homies  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1990s Hip Hop)

Barstool Sportsbook in Charles Town, WV: Trivia Vampires  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Battle of The Little Bighorn)

Grape Escape in Gaithersburg, MD: Toasty  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Best in Show)

Shipgarten in McLean, VA: Bob the Builder  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Residential Building Codes)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: Fresh Off the U-Haul  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Back to School (film))