Things are Shaping Up at Wednesday Night Trivia!
As we head into the final days of Season XIV, we’ve noticed a slight uptick in the nightly attendance figures. Could it be that some teams are polishing off their trivia knowledge for a run at the big money on January 29? Tonight’s game had its ups and downs, especially in a third round that dealt with tough questions on NFL quarterbacks (not named Tom Brady) and Italian food. The final also proved to be quite vexing, but a few teams rose to the top of the leaderboard. Check out the recap!
WEDNESDAY’S STATS AND FACTS (93 teams across 12 venues):
–> Highest Overall Score: FOWL (Memories) with 169
–> Highest Score after Round 4: Fat Kids Are Hard to Kidnap (Valley Grill) with 163
–> Highest First Half Score: Fat Kids Are Hard to Kidnap (Valley Grill) with 92
–> Perfect 21 (correct on all wagers and final): No team scored a Perfect 21 last night, but several teams went 20-for-20 through the first four rounds, only to miss the final.
–> The ‘invisible film scenes’ on the halftime page played slightly tougher than normal, as these interesting pictures led to an average score of 16.2, with about 10% of our teams scoring a perfect 20.
–> Similarly, about 10% of our teams scored six points on the 6-4-2, by knowing that the oldest person to hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart is Louie Armstrong with “Hello Dolly!”.
TONIGHT’S FINAL QUESTION (14.7% success rate):
–> Debuting in the United States in 2004, which TV show has been adapted into foreign versions with titles translated as “New Life” and “Give It All You’ve Got”? (you’ll find the answer later in this blog)
Valley Grill in Middletown, MD
Here it is “hump day” once again and what better way to celebrate the middle of the week than with a little Pour House Trivia here at Valley Grill in Middletown. For round one we were “standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona” as the fastest man alive blew right on past! Round two started off “fresh and clean as a whistle” only to delve into a dysfunctional burger joint and a pair of directorial siblings. You’d have to dig up an end zone at The Meadowlands to visit one of the subjects in round three, and the final round featured an iconic film character portrayed by the late Dudley Moore. Remember I’ll be crowning the House Champion for Valley Grill next Wednesday, so make sure you attend. Here are the results:
First Place: Fat Kids are Hard to Kidnap
Second Place: Stupid Sexy Flanders
Third Place: Southpaw Fish
Next week’s first category: French Verbs
~ Ronnie
The Tavern in Olney, MD
Wednesday night’s trivia game at The Tavern started off in EPIC fashion… with four teams tied for first place! After the puzzle pages were graded and the scores re-tallied, the ties were completely undone. HOWEVER, those four teams kept switching in and out of the top three spots until we reached the final question. After the answers were in, this is how it ended… In third place we had Moving Forward, second place went to Olney The Lonely, and back in the first place seat was the Terps Basketball Fan Club!! They picked “Judy Garland Movies” for next week’s first category, so study up, and we’ll see everyone next Wednesday at The Tavern!!
~ Jon J
Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD
It was raining outside, but inside Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, it was also raining… raining POINTS! Six teams met up at our favorite Wednesday night haunt and engaged in some friendly (Ha) rivalry. Some of you even brought fresh meat for the trivia brain grinder! Feed the machine, let’s make those brain cells work for their living. Thanks for coming out tonight, it’s just not a Wednesday unless I get to see you all!
The final was a good one tonight, as the only team to earn points was Unique Up On It! I wish that had helped you more than it did! Some strategy meant that no one was positive how that final scoreboard looked.. It was Periodic Table Dancers in third place, with Halfway to a Threeway taking second, and in first place: Flight Level Awesome!
That win makes the house championship race anyone’s guess! Next week, we will be starting out a question on Dorks in the Deep, but whale reproduction may be too specific.. we’ll see what our writers come up with.
See you next week!
~ Sam
Bennigan’s in Frederick, MD
We had a crazy night of Pour House Trivia tonight at Bennigan’s in Frederick, as we close in on the end of the season!
Highlights of the Night:
In “You-Chakra’s-Were-Not-Open”: The India question through a lot of teams off tonight; I would’ve thought the Chakra clue would’ve been enough to get people to India, but we had a ton of Brazil’s before the third clue, and even after it, plenty more countries all over the map. You all must open your mind and let the answer flow through you!
In “Clearly-Playing-Favorites”: The Bob’s Burger’s question saw everyone choosing to put down the same of the three Belcher children for the two point bonus. Clearly we are all on the Tina bandwagon; no playing favorites in here 😉
In “Ok-I’m-Gonna-Give-You-A-Clue”: After three different teams tried to give me triple God answers on the Bible Books question, I had to stop and make an announcement that God God God was not an acceptable answer. I probably should’ve picked my words more wisely, because the snark from that one continued to the end of the game. I just meant God wasn’t the answer in terms of the question guys! Come on now!
In third place tonight, after a defensive wager, Quiz on My Face!
In second place tonight, also wagering defensively, BTF!
In first place tonight, as the only team to get the correct answer on the final, Multiple Scoregasms!
Great game everyone! Next week we’re gonna kick things off with a spicy one: Triple 50/50: Trump or Hitler! Study up, and we’ll see you next time!
Until then,
~ Ian
Woodside Deli in Germantown, MD
A furious evening in both weather and trivia on Wednesday night at Woodside Grill in Germantown. Rain threatened to dampen (points for pun!) attendance as much as it did the streets, but alas! Teams arrived with smiles and daggers. In what would have been an extraordinarily unlikely event, team Front of Class staggered into the final round well out of placing. Re-grouping, they managed a very respectable second place. Even better news: Team Fellowship placed, and was adorably shocked to learn they had been invited to the playoffs!
Altogether a pleasant and fun evening, as is usually the case. See you next week, when we will kick off our game with the opening category of Marvel Comics!
Fair winds,
~ Chief
Nido’s Ristorante in Frederick, MD
We started trivia on this rainy night with a question about the Frederick News Post, asking for the day of the week that the FNP stopped publishing newspapers for a few years, before they reintroduced it in a tabloid format; most teams knew this was on Mondays. I always enjoy the audio question whenever the category is karaoke music, with this edition having ‘Stairway to Heaven’, ‘Black Hole Sun’, and ‘Shut Up and Dance’ as the three songs. Halftime asked teams to identify movies based on slightly altered pictures (the characters were edited out but their outfits remained), as well as matching chemical compounds to their more common names.
In the second half we had a question about sweet treats that wiped the board, with everyone forgetting about the existence of macaroons. The final question tonight was about foreign TV titles, and was also a tough question as nobody got it right either. This led to third place going to Dalek Dance Party while second place went to Team Wednesday, and the win tonight went to The Donner Party! Next week we start with a question about Woody Allen Films, so I’ll see you all then!
Until next time,
~ Chad
Bennigan’s in Clarksburg, MD
I handed out the Season XIV playoff invitations tonight and it was telling what kind of a dedicated bunch of teams I have! So, for the playoff invitations, we give the teams that show up regularly a chance to play to get into the post season. This unfortunately doesn’t benefit the teams that only show up here and there, these are the teams that play again and again, week in, week out. Well, I had most every one of my teams show up that were receiving playoff invitations! This might not sound like a big deal but sometimes you get teams that come once every two weeks or so that qualify, or teams that played a lot near the beginning of the season but have been gone since the holidays came around. Tonight I had the same teams I have every week, and they were all here and have been all season! Just a truly dedicated bunch, and I thank you all!
As we know, the World Series is in a few weeks and some of the biggest buzz around the PHT world is Dusty Baker’s School of Management. A trio of dudes who just started playing with PHT last season went on to win the entire thing! These guys are some silent killers and when they show up to Bennigan’s, you know who the favorite is. These guys never have an off-day, always ready to dominate the competition. They showed up tonight, ready to show how dangerous they are just before the post-season begins. A near perfect half kept them in the lead after 2 rounds.
Round 3 and 4 tend to get a bit spicier and the teams start to struggle a bit more in the 2nd half. The championship caliber teams usually don’t have this issue, striving when the others fall behind. Dusty Baker is one of those teams, and it didn’t get any better for the rest of the crowd. Dusty Baker had a 17-point lead going into the final and that was all she wrote. They bet to make sure they didn’t fall behind and like that, another win. Good luck beating these guys in the post-season. So dangerous, looking to defend that title. You heard it here first folks, be afraid! Until next week!
~ Bill
Next week’s first category: Meryl Streep
Memories in Mount Airy, MD
We were witness to another wild night of trivia at Memories, as teams were met with the first batch of post-season invitations, and a challenging set of trivia questions. Scores stayed very close (4 different 2-way ties at halftime!), and led us to an exciting finish. Only three teams were able to come up with the correct response of “The Biggest Loser”, which led the following final leaderboard:
First Place: FOWL
Second Place: Sexual Chocolate
Third Place: Irish Wristwatch
Well, the family rivalry has an answer, as FOWL beats LOWL AND takes down first place! After careful deliberation, FOWL chose the cryptic ‘Anything But France’ as next week’s first category. Good luck studying for that one!
~ Nick
Furnace Bar and Grill in Thurmont, MD
It was great to be at the Furnace Bar and Grill in Thurmont tonight covering for Devan. Good people and good food make the The Furnace the place to be on Wednesday nights! It was a very close game, as halftime concluded with the top three teams separated by just a few points. Due to being the only team to correctly answer the final question, Breakfast for Dinner took first place! Here are your top three:
First Place: Breakfast for Dinner
Second Place: Soda and the Whatchamacolits
Third Place: Indoor Cats
Next week’s first category: “The Dukes of Hazzard”
~ Zach
Barefoot Bernie’s in Hagerstown, MD
Wow! Five teams played a mean game of Pour House Trivia at Barefoot Bernie’s on Wednesday. By the end of the halftime round, the difference between first and third was only two points. By the end of the third round, the difference had grown to five points. Going into the final, only one point marked the difference between first and second places. The wagers on the final question made all the difference, but still ended in a tie for third place between Blank Space and Does He Look Like a Biff?. Blank Space came back from the brink with the closest number of TD throws by Drew Brees. Second place went to Taint Too Proud to Beg, as the only team to answer the final question correctly! The Sad Fat Dragons held onto first place with a strategic low wager. Next week’s first category will be the film “Street Fighter”.
~ Sean
Applebee’s in Waynesboro, PA
Thanks to everyone who came out in this awful weather for another great game at Applebee’s in Waynesboro. This game really showed the importance of betting strategically on the final, because thanks to well played bets, We Are Groot took home another victory and Bees? was able to work their way into the top three where they took down Not Your Team in a tiebreaker and claimed second place. Here are your final standings:
First Place: We Are Groot
Second Place: Bees?
Third Place: Not Your Team
Thanks again for playing, and we’ll see you all next week where the winner’s choice category is “The Golden Girls”.
~ Kyle
Clover Theater in Cloverdale, CA
For the second week in a row we had a record number of teams at Clover Theater, and for the second week in a row a newbie team won it all. Thirteen teams competed in a very tight game. For most of the night, it looked like either Unfrozen Caveman Lawyers or Chicken Nuggets were going to take home the glory. But some strategic wagering in another tough final question allowed Southern Comfort to leapfrog into first place. Only two more weeks left in the season. Who will take home the almost life-size figure of R2D2?
First Place: Southern Comfort
Second Place: Unfrozen Caveman Lawyers
Third Place: Chicken Nuggets
Next week’s first category: Southern Comfort Food
~ Ryan
