From that excerpt you gave us, it doesn't seem to do the procedural aspect of the material room. It mentions the different texture map references that will be transferred, as well as root node colour information (object, highlight, reflective and ambient colours), and it does say 'and more!'... but if they had actually managed to create a system that acurately translated the procedural node system from Poser to Max, wouldn't they have trumpeted it as a mjor selling point instead of hiding it in an 'and more!'?

Regarding Hair and cloth playback - whilst I realise you said this is going to be your introduction to usign Max, I think you could probably use Max;s native cloth and hair simulations to better effect. 

Is there a cheaper option than Reiss that allows you to take in rigged Poser figures, or pre-created poses and animations from Poser into Max? The other parts are icing on a cake, and may be better achieved within Max itself.

That said, I don't own Max (C4D is my workhorse on the occasions I use it), so I could be completely off-bat. I'm only going by what is mentioned in that excerpt, and what I know of Max  from my monthly perusal of 3D World magazine (and its forums).

JonTheCelt