I love to chat while I play. Tournament poker can be quite boring for long stretches.
Live poker, I always talk even tho I also usually vow NOT to talk to anyone as I'm arriving at the casino. I know talking - even innocent idle chat - can give away a ton of information about yourself to a perceptive person - so I know I shouldn't do it... and yet, when I'm there at the tables, I just can't be silent. LOL Poker is a social game, it's a people game as much as its a card game... so it just feels wrong to be the deaf dumb blind mute guy in seat 1. hahaha Most live players are very friendly, some aren't but they don't bother anyone. If there's chat going on, I hop right on into the middle of it. It definitely helps me to pass the hours, I've tried to be a rock at the table for hours and it's just agony.
Online, I also love to chat, however its seen as quite odd when someone chats it up in a
real money online tournament. I almost never do it, not even if I see someone I know at the table, I don't even acknowledge them. Why bother? It's not the place to blab.
The one place I definitely DO chat, and chat a lot, is on Poker Stars play chips. It's a great community there, I know most of the high stakes play chippers, and we basically are a smaller group that always plays against each other, sharing first names in our notes, etc. It's sorta like a Cardschat League I guess, except it's informal and there's no leaderboards to speak of, just bankrolls. When I just want to play poker and chat to like-minded poker folks, I jump into a Poker Stars play chip tournament!!
😀