Domain name / SEO question

[-dio-]

Hi there

We plan to launch an online poker community site in German language serving the German-speaking countries Germany (.de), Austria (.at), Switzerland(.ch). As far as I can tell there are several ways this could be done.

First of all using a keyword-based URL versus creating a "new brand" URL. I have read that keyword-based URLs are already "out" again - but I see lots of keyword-based URL success stories on the web. What would you guys recommend?

Then there's the question of should we use three separate URL's, one each for .de, .ch and .at, with basically just one site using redirects or virtual domains? European users tend to identify with their country domains. But does it make sense from a SEO point of view? Should we rather just do plain and simple one domain for all, e.g. .de or .net, .com or so?

Thanks a lot for your advice!