I am a "fill-in" for a by-weekly poker game here. I am by far the youngest at 52 (most of these guys are over 80!) and they have been doing this for 35 years. The only problem is that they haven't changed the stakes in 35 years. Your buy in is $7 and if you go bust you play until you win again! I do it just for fun of course. The point is that this group has a regular group of 7 who play every two weeks. There is also a list of "fill-ins" in case someone can't make it. Getting a regular group together seems to solve the "stranger in the house" problem.Abd the fill-ins ensure a full table every game.