Live poker is intrinsically a social game. It’s “a people game played with cards,” as the saying goes. As such, conversation is part of the game. Poker would be a boring, miserable experience if it had to be played in silence.
Sometimes the talk is about poker, but even more often it will be about other casino games, sports, current events, politics, sex, family, movies — you name it. Heck, I once played with 2004 WSOP Main Event champion Greg Raymer, and he engaged the table in a lively discussion about what it would be like to be a lobster, and whether it would be worth giving up having a cerebral cortex in order to gain the ability to regrow severed limbs.