Of course, there's much more to be said, but I think most of the other important points are covered in the rec.gambling.poker FAQ , which contains an outstanding section on poker eitquette and great references for further learning. Poker, of course, isn't poker without a ton of gibberish being spoken between players. Of course, there isn't just colorful language. There's also some very useful terminology you need to know in order to keep up with what's going on in a casino game. For that reason I've included a link to Conjelco's r.g.p.
Casinos only play the most popular poker games.
Most home games include many, many varieties, whose names are almost as imaginative as their rules. Anyone can come up with a poker variant, so keeping track of them is hard, but there is a fairly large Guide to Various Poker Variants available on-line, or the entertaining Pokerist's Cookbook . For New Year's I took my first trip ever to Las Vegas, and played in all of the poker rooms out there.