[The Armchair]

The problem you're having is balancing "full" with "secure." Obviously, as you add more players, you go further and further away from your core group of friends. Our rules are simply that in order to play w/us, you have to have either played with us twice before, or you have to be brought by someone who has.

Recording your rules is a good idea. Another idea is to enlist one of your closer friends, and as people arrive, as him to go out on a beer run and hand him a 20 or something like that. Have him ask if anyone else wants anything. They may follow suit with cash too.

I'd also advise strongly against using your own items (like your chips) at other people's games. I was in a situation last week where, 90 min before I had to go, the group voted to play a low-stakes NLHE tourney. Being down a bit at a rather week limit table, I had a lot of reasons to be against it -- especially given my time pressure. They also voted against rebuys. 20 minutes later I was out, but because they were using my chips, I ended up sitting around for the rest of the night. I could have done the playground-boor maneuver and refused to play the tourney ("okay, I'll leave then"). . . right.