I am a newbie at this tableless thing, so have no idea where to start.

I am not bringing up a tables vs tableless debate, but if you want it to become that then go ahead, rather this is a query about tableless.

What is tableless? How do you do it? What's the benefits over tables?

Oddly enough, the "Converting to CSS with minimal tables" thread is already addressing this... go read that one, without getting bogged down in the details of the stylesheet examples.

Also, the resources posts at the top of the forum are good for an afternoon's worth of browsing, whether all at once or a bite at a time.

And finally, a visual representation of the benefirts from a production angle:

Print-ready poster: separation in a nutshell - The Web Standards Project

link to the thread is http://www.webmaster-talk.com/css-fo...al-tables.html

That's a very good site which you can learn why you should not use tables:

Why tables for layout is stupid: problems defined, solutions offered

Why tables for layout is stupid: problems defined, solutions offered