You Can Bank on Thursday Trivia!

Eighteen teams and 228 total teams attended a game of Pour House Trivia on the last Thursday of 2022. That included our most highly-attended game of the night, a 24-teamer at Aslin Beer Co in Alexandria, VA.

FIRST ROUND:

We cruised through Thursday’s opening round with subjects such as magician and TV hosting duo Penn and Teller, Benedictine monk and champagne namesake Dom Perignon, and Things One and Two from the childrens classic book The Cat in the Hat. And would you look at that, 36 teams in the round recorded a perfect score!

SECOND ROUND:

The game’s audio question handled a trio of songs which each had the word red in the title, and 17% of teams added two bonus points for naming all three solo artists: Peter Gabriel (Red Rain), Chris De Burgh (The Lady in Red), and Taylor Swift (simply Red). We stayed with colors for the next question, which asked about the blue circle in the center of the Google Chrome logo, then moved on to ask about NBA Hall of Famer David Robinson. The latter question was the first half’s most difficult way to earn bonus points, as only 16% of teams knew his pro jersey number, 50. The hardest wagering question in Thursday’s first half came next:

• Henri Becquerel is credited with the discovery of radioactivity, which he stumbled upon accidentally while working with which element with a single-letter symbol?

U oughta know Becquerel worked with uranium, answered correctly by 46% of the field. This round’s perfect teams were What About Dave? (Mark’s) and F U COVID (Mark’s).

HALFTIME:

Teams were asked to name Hostess treats by their photos, then give a set of answers which each contained the letters year within. A lucky seven teams secured the full 20 points on this halftime sheet, while the average score was 14.4 points. At the halftime break, these teams were on top:

• Ask Me Know Questions (Smoketown): 91
• Better Lucky Than Smart (Belly Love): 89
• Great Heathen Army (Brewery Fire): 89
• Scotty Doesn’t Know (Solace Brewing): 89
• Cat in the Chat (Loudoun Kitchen): 88
• Just Good Enough (Steinhardt): 88

THIRD ROUND:

Another round full of difficult bonus chances, the third round began with Three Clues about the state of Pennsylvania in which 14% of teams gave the right answer early for extra points. Two questions later, a question about The Executioner’s Song author Norman Mailer brought bonus credit to a game-low 8.7% of teams which gave his name before a multiple-choice list was revealed. As for the toughest wagering question on Thursday, it came next:

• From 1942 to 1943, which Pacific island whose common name comes from a Spanish village was the scene of the first major land offensive by the Allies against the Japanese?

Guadalcanal was correctly named by 32% of the field. Finally, we asked about the super-rare Honus Wagner baseball cards from 1909, of which only 57 copies are known to still exist; 11 of teams knew that hockey great Wayne Gretzky became a co-owner of one of those cards in 1991. Only one team made it through the third round with all 36 points intact: Moops (Aslin).

FOURTH ROUND:

Thursday’s 6-4-2 regarding money was the root of a six-point boost for 61 teams! For the final round, we had topics such as Game of Thrones, actor Christian Bale, a three-parter on events that occurred on New Year’s Eve, and the medical condition tetanus (or trismus). The last question of the round was a little bit of a caped crusade:

• Batman is a creation of DC Comics; when the superhero was introduced in 1939, what title appeared on the front cover of his first appearance, which was issue no. 27?

Even with a crossword-style clue, wagers were earned by just 38% of teams that knew it was Detective Comics; 14% did so early for a two-point bonus. Nine teams earned perfectos in this round. These were the highest-scoring teams heading into the final question of the night:

• What About Dave? (Mark’s): 162
• Great Heathen Army (Brewery Fire): 161
• Kyle (Solace Outpost): 158
• Scotty Doesn’t Know (Solace Brewing): 158
• FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 156 POINTS

FINAL QUESTION (28.9% success rate):

• Currently known as BNY Mellon, the Bank of New York was co-founded in 1784 by Andrew Mellon and which two other men whose stories are forever intertwined?

The Bank of New York was co-founded by eventual Broadway subjects Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. This game’s lone Perfect 21 went to What About Dave? (Mark’s), which provided correct answers to all 21 wagering questions for the second consecutive week! With all the questions answered, these scores were the highest:

• Scotty Doesn’t Know (Solace Brewing): 170
• Just Good Enough (Steinhardt): 168
• Shark Fin Pizza (Loudoun Kitchen): 165
• Moops (Aslin): 165
• Ask Me Know Questions (Smoketown): 165
• Comfortably Dumb (Loudoun Kitchen): 164
• Lin’s Ass (Aslin): 164
• Painful Burning Sensation (Smoketown): 164
• What About Dave? (Mark’s): 164
• Cat in the Chat (Loudoun Kitchen): 161

THURSDAY’S WINNERS:

Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick, MD: Ask Me Know Questions  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Triple 50/50: Beyonce or Destiny’s Child?)

Michaux Brew in Waynesboro, PA: Suspect Two  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Hamilton)

Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD: 

Loudoun Kitchen and Bar in Leesburg, VA: Shark Fin Pizza  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Nacho Libre)

Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD: Sweet Cheeks  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 2000s Rappers)

Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA: Better Lucky Than Smart  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Solar System)

Solace Brewing in Sterling, VA: Scotty Doesn’t Know  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Alfred Hitchcock)

Brewery Fire in Taneytown, MD: Great Heathen Army  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: NCAA Team Names Not Ending in S)

Fourscore Beer Co. in Gettysburg, PA: Risky Quizness  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Baltimore Orioles Shortstops)

Crooked Run in Sterling, VA: Quarter Century  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The White Lotus)

Solace Outpost in Falls Church, VA: Kyle  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Disney Royalty)

Interchange Tiki Bar in Williamsport, MD: Shirts and Skins  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Claude Monet)

Bear Brick Oven Pizza in Silver Spring, MD: Samurai Trivia Players  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1960s One-Hit Wonders)

Preston’s Pub in Manassas Park, VA: Kentucky Fried Panda  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Poppy Playtime)

Aslin Beer Co in Alexandria, VA: Moops  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Feudal Japan)

Kalypso’s Sports Tavern in Reston, VA: Bad Rhino  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Early-2000s Boy Bands)

Steinhardt Brewing in Frederick, MD: Just Good Enough  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Trading Places)

Mile 20 at the Breeze in Herndon, VA: Craig’s Gambling Problem  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 1990s Supermodels)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: What About Dave?  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Dams)