[psandman]

I would stay away from jackpots, they require that you maintain a chunk of money (which could be a draw to robberies) and they require that your players have faith that you won't just pocket the money.

As far as chips go, don't worry about fancy, don't worry about having nice chips, just make sure that you have unique chips so that you don't worry about someone ringing in.

How much competetion is there in this market? are their legal rooms nearby, many underground games? If not much competition I would consider bringing your rake up to $5 max and be more genrous with your freebies. Buying people dinner isn't a huge expense and really goes a long way for goodwill.

Also every underground game that I played in the operator of the game had to put money in, either by staking players, or lending money (much of which would never be paid back). This is just a cost of operating and keeping a game running, but its another reason to rake $5 instead of $3.