So now that I got some rest I think I can resolve the fuzz I created.
To me, poker is first and foremost a face to face card game that incorporates quite some math (eech) and elements of risk/rentability judgement and investment like you find them in strategy/economy games like monopoly, simcity, railroad tycoon etc, and outwitting your oppononents.
Then the second fun thing is the trashtalk that inevitably evolves while playing with your pals, sarcastic comments on their moves, desperate attempts to make them reveal their hands, and other silly talk just to drive them mad and do something stupid.
Furthermore, the poker I had in mind gets along without loads of real cash. Even when playing with some friends we used monopoly money as chip-replacements (once we even tried potato chips), and the payout was settled in liquid form at the local tavern.
If you can't play with your friends there are computer poker games like hosted on abandonia. With a decent AI you can use it to practice, but in the end it is always a bit stereotypic and totally lacks the talking.
That's why I thought "hmm, maybe playing monopoly-money-poker against humans on the internet could be fun". I had doubts it could be really for free since many things offered "for free" on the net turn out to be some sort of trial version or preview only to drag you into follow up financial transactions.
I therefore checked the site for things like this. I even made hardcopies of the pages to be able to prove there was no such clue. I printed the customer contract legal mumbo jumbo, read it twice and had my friend have a look at it to make sure there isn't anything in it regarding any kind of charges/fees, payment modalities etc. for I'm quite paranoid regarding financial transactions via the net. There wasn't even a $-sign, so I finally thought this could be exactly what I was looking for.
Then I gave it a try and yes you could chat with the other guys, but most of them played grave-silent. Only in the last game that there were several people that joined in the chant, and that made it enjoyable, but I wondered if there are similar sites where the players in general are a bit more talkative.
That was all I had in mind when I started the thread. I did not even think of the other kind of internet poker where you can sell home and wife to give your money away to some pokerbots or cheaters that team-up behind your back. I took it granted that no one who can google "abandonia" could be so stupid to go for that, and thus it was completely out of my mind. My idea was poker with fake-money like in offline games + online playing could be a fitting thread for a site related to gaming - nothing else.
Obviously some of you have had some bad experience with fraud attempts in online gaming. When you read my post the way I wrote it you simply had no choice but to come to the conclusion I tried to coax you into wasting your money for online gambling because I expressed myself so badly. English is not my native language and when I'm a bit out of my head I often lack the proper words to express things clearly. And I also didn't notice that my post could be interpreted that way before I had thought over your replies (My, even the title sounds like a spam).
That is all I can say. This is not meant as an excuse for my lousy way of posting, but an attempt to explain why it evolved that way.
P.S. I just had the thought to develop an e-mail based poker system allowing to play with my friends even if they are spread all over the globe and waste most of their time with jobs, families etc. You know, like chess by mail. I think this could work out and bring back memories of the atmosphere of playing in a cellar with a light bulb over the table like TheChosen put it. Maybe this would have made a less offensive thread...
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