New to this

I am new to SL and want to start doing animations.

I have previous experience in 3d animation but never with Poser and never with SL.

Am I to understand all I need is Poser (v5 or so) and then I can just export in the right format, 10L to upload, and then it's a done deal?

no weird format converting or anything neccesary? Just Poser5 and I'm good to go?

Hi Legend, Welcome to SL. I've ever also been told so.
Yeah, you need nothing but Poser. Besides, you don't have to learn all of Poser, just an animation section.
One thing, I recomend you should download and use SL Avatar. Also read this thread and the linked tutorial.

Thanks!