i got into chess for a while, and read a little, picked up the basics and whatnot. it didn't do a damn bit of good until i started playing 4-5 matches a day. mostly against friends, but still. i was playing.

like tom says: you can learn your pot odds calculations and memorize starting hand charts, but until you sit down and play (a lot) it wont do a damn bit of good. you have to put all that knowledge together and make some sense of it.