New to the game and need general advice...

[blackcoffee1]

Yeah, so i'm new to poker... I've been playing chess the last three years and have acheived an expert rating/master strength...but...there is...well...no money in it. With the recent boom, i'm sad so say i'm a product of the current poker fad. But, i have an ability to pick things up quickly and there seems to be skill in this game. My previos perception of it was majorily luck, the more i read/see the more i'm wrong.

What would any basic advice be to getting better? Play a ton of hands? Read a lot? Get a strong player to teach me? (an online friend of mine has had very big success over the past year or so in poker which has more or less inspired my interest...i'm terrible at asking for things especially help, but i'm assuming his advice is my best way to go but in the meantime anything that can be given here would be great..)

I recently went to a casino across state and bought in for about 100 and cashed out with a little over 400 a couple hours later...I made an attempt to play agressively and just more or less made strong guesses at people's hands and a couple of my good hands got paid off... Any info/help is appreciated.