Thanks to a schedule change, we enjoyed one extra venue of Pour House Trivia on Wednesday night, and that bar gave us tonight’s top-scoring team.  This team is accustomed to being among our ‘Best of the Best’ on other nights of the week, but it’s been a while since we’ve seen them dominate on a Wednesday.  Who is it?  Read on to find out!:

WEDNESDAY’S STATS AND FACTS (91 teams across 13 venues):

–> Highest Overall Score: Uncle Jack (Quincy’s South) with 175

–> Highest Score after Round 4: Uncle Jack and Dusty Baker School of Management (Bennigan’s – Clarksburg) with 164

–> Highest First Half Score: Uncle Jack, Sofa King Smart (Quincy’s South), and Kobe Buffalo meat (Belles’) with 92

–> Perfect 21 (correct on all wagers and final): Uncle Jack, Stupider Sexier Flanders (Valley Grill), Alternative Answers (Barefoot Bernie’s)

–> Our halftime page played easier than normal, with an average score of 17.2 and 24% of our teams scoring a perfect 20 points.

–> Tonight’s 6-4-2 question was not only very difficult, but enticed many wrong answers on the six-point clue.  Only five teams overall knew that the Centers for Disease Control was founded specifically to combat malaria.  More than 60% of our teams bit too early on this question and earned zero points.

TONIGHT’S FINAL QUESTION (31.2% success rate):

–> Measuring 61 acres in area, which geographic locale inspired a literary classic first published in 1854? (you’ll find the answer later in this blog)

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Valley Grill in Middletown, MD

Well, I made sure that I had all of the appropriate gear together for a nice game out on the patio tonight here at Valley Grill, but sadly the weather did not cooperate.  Everything is ready to go however, so hopefully we’ll start outside next week.  The first round tonight was a high scoring one, as these folks nailed subjects such as Walt Disney World, the capital of China, and the “radiant” personality of Marie Curie.  We delved into the Aztec language and the subsequent English words that derived from the dead language, and had a Three Clues / One Word question that pretty much encompasses everything that has happened to date. By the way, Craig Ferguson is one of my all time favorite personalities and I miss his late night talk show:

Round two remained competitive for the most part as we had an audio clue with song titles that all rhymed with each other.  We followed that up with the 25th Anniversary of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which was accompanied by a couple of “eye rolls” and even a “you do know we are IN Maryland?” question from the players.  We found out Jackie O and Marge Simpson have the same maiden name and then took a look at “Canada’s finest” with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  Finally we said goodbye to to a long time political commentator (some gladly said goodbye as they stated in less than favorable terms).  I will say that out of all the voices clamoring for our political souls, his was the most fair and factual in this host’s opinion:

Round three drew the second biggest miss of the night and the correct answer was “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, and only five of our fourteen teams pulled off that correct answer.  Our more successful subject was PBS’ answer to American geographical illiteracy with the game show “Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?”.  Folks also did well identifying Adele though many were surprised that she already has fifteen Grammys under her belt, and folks were on point naming all of the letters for the top portion of this meaningful American flag:

Polio returned to the United States, not the disease per se, but the answer for the reason why the CDC was founded for our six point clue, and polio drew a lot of zeroes for the teams tonight and was the biggest miss of tonight’s game. The final round returned as another great scoring round, and the easiest answered questions of the round were the origins of the word Messiah, moving on to the Euro coins for the countries of Ireland, Spain, and Austria.  A few teams got both actors to play “Alfie” on the big screen, with most teams at least getting Michael Caine, and a few two point bonuses came about by knowing “salamander” before the crossword hint was given.  One question was a toss up for a few teams between Steve Wozniak and this entrepreneur as the man behind turning Pixar into a stand alone company:

More than half of the teams answered correctly in regards to Walden Pond and it’s obvious effect on Henry David Thoreau, and all of the strategic wagering had no effect on the final three places.  Here are the results:

First Place:  Shake Weight

Second Place:  Southpaw Fish

Third Place:  Stupider Sexier Flanders

Next week’s first category:  Michigan

~ Ronnie

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The Tavern in Olney, MD

I’ve seen a lot of crazy endings in my years as a host for Pour House Trivia, but Wednesday evening at The Tavern in Olney, I saw one of the best!  The game started very competitively  through the first half.  After the halftime puzzle page was graded, there was only an eight-point difference between first and last place, with EVERY team over 80 points!  Nice work!

The second half gave a good number of teams some problems – only one team was able convert point son the third question of round three, which asked about the novel that inclides the words “Don’t Panci” on the back cover.  It’s Not a Toomah gained ground on the field there by also hitting on the two-point bonus.  After the 6-4-2 question, there was a MUCH bigger gap, especially after all but one teams jumped the gun and earned ZERO POINTS on this question.  The Jon Jeffries Fan Club showed their patience, and it paid off with four points.

Last week’s winners were a first-time team who had a great time and came back to see if they could repeat their performance.  By the time we reached the final question, it wasn’t looking very good, as they were in last place, and our first place teams was 21 points ahead.  However, withthe second place team just one point behind, it forced our leaders to bet aggressively.  So, that last place was given a slim chance at victory when EVERY TEAM went the full 12-point wager.  Interestingly enough, every team had a different answer for the final question and I couldn’t believe it when I saw who the only team was that had it correct!!

Dropping to 3rd was Jon Jeffries Fan Club, dropping to 2nd was Olney The Lonely, and “DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?! YES!” Moving from LAST to FIRST was Mamma Lu’s!!  Congratulations!  For their second win in a row, they decided to go with the same category for next week’s first question: Super Bowl Champions.  (I guess they want to go with what works for them?).  So study up and come in for some fun this Wednesday at The Tavern!

~ Jon J

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Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD

I was back flying solo at Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick tonight, and while we had some divided attention spans between the trivia and the Capitals, a good game was had by all!  We started out with a perfect four leaf clover for Formal Protest, let’s hope it helped them in the long game.  Speaking of long game, our first question tonight was a Triple 50/50 in the subject of “Porn Star or World Leader?”.  What could go wrong there?  I am actually a little upset that there’s not a porn star with the first name Goodluck…  Maybe next week we will start with word leaders turned porn star, who wear shoes!

That first round was solid and lead us to a rousing game of “Let’s Not Give the Answers”.  Teams were in luck though, as that streak did not continue into the second round, and I even gave scores tonight!  Mixing it up.  The halftime puzzle page was a quick one tonight, teams just pick’em up and putt’em down.  No one even wanted to see the color version!  It didn’t seem to phase them, and half of our teams tonight pulled perfect scores on the puzzle.

The third round was more solid game playing from my teams, good strategy, good answers and ah hell, screw it. Tonight was all about that final anyhow.  Tough question.  Tough teams.  So, we had three teams pick up the correct answer and they were our top three overall!

In third place tonight – that four-leaf clover did some work, Formal Protest!  Second place went to #Fatkiddanceparty (Definitely the fastest answer for tonight’s final) and first place went to those crazy kids of Flight Level Awesome!  For next week we will start with an audio question on Identifying European Languages.  I’m just glad I will not have to pronounce anything…

~ Samantha

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Bennigan’s in Frederick, MD

I had a pretty great day today, so it’s no surprise that the energy was high and happy here tonight at Bennigan’s in Frederick for our game of Wednesday night Pour House Trivia!

Highlights of the Night:

In “My-What-Fortuitous-Circumstances”: What an interesting circumstance!  We have a question about Bill O’Reilly’s sponsorship dip in the wake of his illicit activities, and what do you know!  He got fired today!  What a terribly convenient coincidence! Did the news of his firing contribute to my day?  Who can say!

In “You-Guys-Are-Too-Sweet-And-So-Is-This-Cupcake!”: As it became abundantly clear, thanks to my parents bringing in cupcakes tonight, tomorrow I turn 28 years old.  So after I used the opportunity to make a “While I’m still 27!” joke when a team was taking too long to turn in an answer, the bar seemed to have been prepped, as an immediate round of “Happy Birthday” began, complete with a blow-your-head-off-sweet cupcake. Thank you guys, that was lovely 🙂

In “Now-Please-Don’t-Hate-Me”: A short time later, we went into one of the more difficult final questions in a long while, and the grumblings started early, after I had to repeat it a few more times.  Correct answers were key tonight, and there were only a few!

In third place tonight, finally dethroned after several weeks atop the leaderboard, Momentary Lapse of Reason!

In second place tonight, Simple Minds!

In first place tonight, after a bit of a hiatus, coming back with a vengeance, Many Bothans!

Great game tonight, guys, and thank you all once again for the birthday wishes 😉  Next week we’ll kick things off with a Harry Potter category, specifically about the BOOKS, NOT the movies! Read up, and we’ll see you next time!

Until then,

~ Ian

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Woodside Deli in Gaithersburg, MD

Tonight was a great night out at Woodside Deli in Gaithersburg!  I was able to fill in for Scott tonight, and I was extremely impressed at the level of trivia talent at this location.  High Water Mark is apparently the team to beat here, as they have rattled off six wins in a row!

The game got off to a rather interesting start: our Winner’s Choice category was ‘Board Games’, and three of our five teams decided to place their five-point bonus chip on this question.  The question was fairly straightforward, and yet all three of those teams missed the question, including two who wagered nine points!  Ouch!

The rest of the half continued without incident, as a Doris Day and the Tim stormed to a half-time lead at 87 points, which is not bad considering that was a one-man team!  He kept up that torrid pace, but was unable to give me the correct response of Walden Pond on our final question, so he slipped back into third place.  Second place went to Contribution, and our winners (once again) was High Water Mark!

Join us next week for more fun when our first category will be Grammar!

~ Lindsay

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Nido’s Ristorante in Frederick, MD

Coming soon…

Next week’s first category:  Movie Musicals

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Top Golf in Alexandria, VA

t’s a Wednesday night, which means it’s time for another Pour House Trivia night at TopGolf Alexandria!  At the start of the night, it looked like we were going to have a very competitive game.  We welcomed a new team: Daedalus, our first solo player here at TopGolf.  So, let’s see how he and everyone else fared.

In Round 1, our players must have been Aztecs in a previous life, since they were able to figure out the English equivalents of some Aztec words.  Then, we asked for teams to name the national capital that is less popular than Shanghai in its own country.  Our solo player was the only one to also pick up a two-point bonus by identifying its former name.  In fact, he was in the lead going into Round 2.  But, that all came tumbling down when most of our teams did poorly on our audio question.  Nevertheless, only four points separated our last and first place teams after our halftime puzzle.

Round 3 started off with a question on an oldie, but goodie computer game that taught geography.  Carmen Sandiego usually can evade anybody, but our teams managed to pick her out from the line-up as the correct answer.  Then, our 6-4-2 caught two of our teams in a trap.  When asked for what disease the CDC was originally founded for, our solo player put smallpox and another put polio, but two of our teams decided to hold out for our four-point clue and ended up grabbing the points instead.  That led to two of our teams tying for first going into Round 4.

Tonight’s final question asked about a particular bit of land that was the inspiration for an 1854 book.  Two of our teams thought Europe and said Kensington Gardens and Dublin for “The Dubliners”.  But, our solo player knew it referred to Henry David Thoreau’s two month, two week, two day stay at Walden Pond.  So, while everyone else lost points, he was the only to gain.  How did that affect our standings?  Here was our medal table for tonight.

First Place:  Easter Bunnies

Second Place:  Team Daedalus (our singleton)

Third Place:  Two Balls, One Bag

Next week’s first category: Native Trees of Virginia

Join us every Wednesday night for more trivia at 7.00 pm!

Until next time,

~ Chris

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Quincy’s South in Rockville, MD

SPECIAL WEDNESDAY EDITION!

An extremely high scoring game occurred at Quincy’s on the atypical Wednesday night of trivia.  In the first round, our top seven teams missed a total of five wagering questions, all for only five total points of loss.  The only question in the first half that gave Quincy’s teams trouble was the audio question, where 80% of all of the first half misses occurred.  The song, “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz, brought the most difficulty followed by the song “Limelight” by Rush.   At half time we had a tie for first place (with a whopping 92 points) between Sofa King Smart and Uncle Jack, with a tie for third place (at 87 points) between Balls Out and Screaming Death Monkeys.

The third round brought more trivia brilliance with only four combined questions missed by the top seven teams.  The top four teams separated by a little bit after this round and the 6-4-2 question.  Uncle Jack took the lead with 128, next was Sofa King Smart at 127, Balls Out at 124, Screaming Death Monkeys at 123, and Catching Planes was within striking distance at 110.  The top teams all hit the 6-4-2 question at 4 points while a late starter, Go Caps!, was the only team to hit at 6 points!

The fourth round was more of the same from one of the most brilliant groups I’ve hosted.  Uncle Jack kept the lead with 164, next was Sofa King Smart at 162, Balls out at 160, Screaming Death Monkeys at 157 and Catching Planes was within still within striking distance at 142.  The final question created a bit of turmoil for the standings!

Most teams took the full time and handed the answer in at the last moment.  The top two teams nailed the final with Uncle Jack keeping the lead for the win, Sofa King Smart took second place, and coming up from the back of the pack was Catching Planes for third place!

Next week’s first category:  “Brockmire”

~ Scott

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Bennigan’s in Clarksburg, MD

Trivia during the Caps game seems to work out well when I have MAGICAL POWERS!  It was crazy!  I started my first spiel about 15 minutes before the game started and almost halfway through my speech, the CAPS SCORE!  One to nothing.  I wait about five minutes and start reading the total teams and the names and before I knew it, the bar was cheering because the CAPS SCORED AGAIN!  Two to nothing.  I’m clearly the good luck charm. A few minutes later, Rhymes with Orange shouts to me “Hey Bill, start talking again so the Caps score”.  My response is “I can’t just talk randomly to make them score or —” and just as I’m finishing my thought, the Maple Leafs scored.  Pressing the luck charm, this guy.  Almost cost them the game.  But of course, I started going on again, and this time it was normal, and the Caps get another one to make it 3-1.

Hockey was certainly a focus of the crowd tonight but we did have a trivia game tonight that was just as crucial, as hot, as important, and as exciting!  A ten team field tonight with mostly regulars but a few new teams, they were welcomed in with quite the beat down tonight hehe.  We’ve got some powerful teams here and this season particularly has looked very tough with Dusty Baker’s School of Management putting on the pounding week in and week out, winning most every game this season! Tonight Dusty Baker led at the half by a few points but we had Roaming Gnomes close behind and Rhymes with Orange in contention for the top spot as well.

A crucial 6-4-2 tonight as over half the teams electing to go early but only ONE team converting points!  Rhymes with Orange picks up 6 points, the only team to do so, and closes in on the lead, though they still trailed by a good margin.  Going into the final, weekly favorite Dusty Baker led by 5 points.  They’d win with a correct response, otherwise hoping that everyone else misses.  Well, they didn’t get the final correct BUT almost EVERY team misses this one.  In fact, only one team got this question right.  Unfortunately, for Dusty Baker, that team was within striking distance and with the sole get on the final, Rhymes with Orange takes this one down!  What a win!  What a comeback!  Dusty Baker takes 2nd place after leading all night!  Crazy game!  We’ve got more trivia in a week, see ya then!

~ Bill

Next week’s first category:  Chesapeake Bay

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Memories in Mount Airy, MD

Now That’s What I Call Wednesday Night Trivia!

Things are really heating up here at Memories Charcoal House in Mount Airy, as the race for Season XV House Champion gets even tighter.  Scores were really tight through the first half, and looked to stay that way all night.

Not much got by our field during the first half, as most teams earned points on all ten wagering questions, and five teams turned in a perfect halftime round!  With five teams topping 85 points at the break, confidence was riding very high.  The second half featured some great questions, including one in which a big hint was displayed prominently on the TV’s in the bar (yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s playoff season), but we did run into one big stumbling block, as the disease-themed 6-4-2 question was a killer this week, with almost every team submitting a wrong answer on six points.  Yikes.

Our teams recovered nicely during the final round, though a little bit of separation provided from strategic wagering on the final question.  Exactly half of our teams were able to surmise Walden Pond as the correct answer to tonight’s final question.  Once the dust settled, we had our top three teams for tonight:

First Place:  Sexual Chocolate

Second Place:  FOWL

Third Place:  Third Place: Die Dan Die (congrats!!!)

Sexy Chocolate slingshots into first place overall with this win and selects Marvel’s Netflix TV Shows as next week’s first category.  Study up… well, maybe not “Iron Fist”… and I’ll see you next week!

~ Nick

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Furnace Bar and Grill in Thurmont, MD

Tonight at the Furnace Bar in Thurmont, we had a very close game as We Need an Adult looked to continue their winning ways, going for their third win in a row.  Breakfast for Dinner was still seeking redemption as their eight-game streak came to a screeching halt when We Need an Adult decided to join us for Pour House Trivia.  It’s turned into quite a two-tam rivalry!  Meanwhile, Member Berries was still trying to score that first victory and Insie Tinsie Newforts where trying to get back to their winning ways as well.

Our field cruised through the first half, as our top three teams were separated by just four points coming out of halftime.  The third round finally saw some separation in the field, as We Need an Adult was the only team to not miss a question in the third round, giving them a ten-point advantage after the 6-4-2.  However, the trailing teams continued to battle all the way to the final question of the night.  We Need an Adult held an 11-point lead, so they could still be caught!

The final question is where strategic wagering came in to play.  Trailing second place by eight points and not feeling confident enough to attempt the top spot tonight, Insie Tinsie Newforts wagered zero in hopes that Breakfast for Dinner would miss the question. Breakfast for Dinner did wager it all and missed the final, but the only team to get the final correct was the winner We Need an Adult!  They now have a three-game winning streak.  In second place was he stragetic Insie Tinsie Newforts and rounding out the top three was Breakfast for Dinner.  Our first category for next week’s game will be the TV show “The Expanse”

Until next time,

~ Devan

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Barefoot Bernie’s in Hagerstown, MD

It was a big night for Pour House Trivia at Barefoot Bernie’s n Hagerstown on Wednesday.  We saw a 27th wedding anniversary and a 21st birthday tonight!  Congrats to Rocket Realtors!  We hope you enjoy another 27 years of wedded bliss.  And Netflix and Chill… welcome to Pour House Trivia!

None of our new challengers were able to dominate our veteran teams, but they certainly mixed it up among themselves.  Returning team Last Place, a new solo team Braves 10, Rocket Realtors, and Netflix and Chill all jockeyed for position and variously held the lead among themselves. Netflix and Chill even had the second highest score for the puzzle page.

Our top three teams were neck-and-neck all night.  These perennial powerhouses were separated by one point after both the first and second round.  That separation “grew” to three points after round three, and in spite of some very tough questions to close the game, our third place team was only six points out of the lead heading into the final question.  We saw some uncharacteristically low wagers on the final, including two tactical wagers of zero points from our top teams?  Were they expecting a very difficult question?  Well sure enoughm, only one team earned points onteh final question, and it was our leaders.  Alternative Answers wagered high and still came down with the right answer to create an even bigger first place lead.  The zero wagers helped Pen Island and Sad Fat Dragons hold on to their third and second places respectively.

Next week, we’re going to play you some Tori Amos for the Winner’s Choice category.

Can’t wait to see you there!

~ Sean

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Applebee’s in Waynesboro, PA

It was yet another great game tonight at Applebee’s in Waynesboro.  Say what you will, but these teams bring it week in and week out and it is awesome.  Here are some highlights from tonight’s game:

We had a relatively smooth first round with most teams cruising through the first five questions.  We started out talking about the French Revolution, and then learned that the word tomato is derived from the language of the Aztecs.  Round two was a bit tougher, but teams were still able to navigate it pretty well, with most teams correctly guessing that the beautiful Camden Yards celebrated its 25th anniversary earlier this month.  We finished the half with Not Your Team in the lead, despite Wingin’ It being the only team to turn in a perfect puzzle page.

After that, it wasn’t such smooth sailing any more, as rounds three and four were considerably tougher. We learned that “Don’t Panic” was on the cover of the original version of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, with Alternative Facts being the only team to correctly get that.  After a difficult 6-4-2 that saw no teams get it on the six point clue, Not Your Team had extended their lead to seven points.  Thanks to them being the only team to guess that Steve Jobs purchased Pixar, Not Your Team was able to hold onto the lead going into the final.  We had some creative wagering happen, and thanks to a conservative bet JuJu and Friends was able to jump from 6th to 3rd after a final that saw zero teams get it correct.  Not Your Team also wagered conservatively so they were able to maintain the lead that they held all game and take home the victory.  Here are your top three:

First Place:  Not Your Team

Second Place:  Bees?

Third Place:  JuJu and Friends

Next week’s first category:  Dead “Simpsons” Characters

~ Kyle

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