Next week’s trivia plans are Monday at Sticks – where we’ve played every week except Labor Day – and Wednesday at The Owl. We haven’t played at The Owl for a while, but it looks like the whole “Fridays off” thing is coming to an end, so the early Wednesday shows will start to look more attractive! Also, my hours are picking up a bit at work, so this means the late-night games at Sticks will also become less frequent, too. It’s too bad, really! I kind of like having a chance to beat up “that” team a little! They deserve it 🙂

A “Face the Music” game is also on next week’s calendar (Thursday night). We’ll get to use our “no booze” gift certificate…looks like I’ll be ordering some food “to go!” I don’t tend to eat during trivia games since I usually eat before I go out (mainly due to having to get up very early on work days). It will be nice to have lunch the next day that I can throw in the oven or “nuke!” If fries are involved, warming in the oven is best…

If you look at average scores per night for Thursday’s Sticks games, we are actually the top dogs, with us “averaging” about 117.5 points per night in our Thursday games. That’s actually slightly better than our average scores in our Monday games (about 115 points). We also, with this most recent game, moved into third place. Yes, I know we’re not trying to “win” a spot Thursday at Sticks, but it’s still good to know we’re measuring up well against some decent competition!

I’m feeling good about my decision to sit out the next My Trivia Live semifinals/finals. It’s the right thing to do. Even just “sitting in” with a team rather than committing to playing weekly MTL games was potentially way too stressful for me. You don’t want to let down the team you’re helping, and of course it’s disappointing when the team you’re sitting in with doesn’t advance to finals – or is barely edged out of prize money at finals! Plus, with the recent increase in prize money at finals, it really has made for quite a cutthroat environment. I wonder who will get the spot I’m leaving open on the team I’ve been playing with? I suggested someone to the captain, but it will be up to her to make the call. They’re a pretty chill group to play with – but I think they definitely need more than just one strong player to round out their “foursome” if they want to make it to finals. There are plenty of great players out there, and I know a lot of them – so I’m sure she’ll have no problem filling that seat!

Bottom line, there are enough shitty things in life -getting stressed out over pub trivia isn’t something I need to do. I’m enjoying the weekly “meetups” with my players and just focusing on trying to win beer money. About that, we’ve managed to win $810 in prize money so far this year (regulation games only, not tournaments). On average, every time we go out for a trivia game, we’re going to win at least $13. It’s always a good strategy to pick “winnable” battles (which is why we no longer play at the very competitive – and megateam-infested Corner Brewery). About four out of five times we go out for a game we’ll win some prize money.

That’s about it for this silly update! Let’s see what happens in the next eight weeks…