Bruno "King" Fitoussi got his real start in the gaming industry through the creation and management of France's first poker card room at the prestigious Aviation Club de France on the Champs-Elysées in Paris.

To say the least, that card room has enjoyed tremendous success. Bruno was also involved in the Euro Finals of Poker and now runs VIP-Gaming.com, a gaming travel agency.

When asked what he likes most about his involvement in poker, he says: "The players themselves. They are incredible people; probably some of the most interesting people on this earth."

Ironically, Fitoussi is very enthusiastic about the Internet's role in further popularizing poker, but he thinks its chief function should be to make people feel that it's far more interesting to play in real card clubs and casinos with real people.

Though Fitoussi studied architecture, once he graduated from school he ran a successful music company. Selling the business after four years of work, he had enough money to pursue poker more regularly. He spent a number of years playing high-limit games with a circle of high-rolling friends, among whom he had a good reputation.

"I never screamed and everybody knew that I played a clean game," he says.

It was in 1990 that a club first asked Fitoussi to establish poker games for them and manage that part of the business. Of that time he says: "It didn't really seem like work to me. I was helping to set up a club and I loved doing it. I used what I had learned from the Americans and the English to establish standard rules for poker play in France."

There can be no question about his dedication to the game. Fitoussi says: "I truly love poker. It's not just a business for me, it's a real passion."

Fitoussi spent 1991 in Las Vegas, a time he remembers fondly. "I was going to visit the Mecca of poker, see the great players and learn much more," he says. "I learned a great deal about how to play Limit games. I actually loved Vegas but my future wife Isabelle, who is a clothes designer for Kenzo, was homesick for Europe."

Isabelle came to visit Fitoussi in August that year and, 30 minutes before catching a flight home, the two were married in Las Vegas. They now have a son and a daughter, who inspired Fitoussi to pursue his passion for poker a little closer to home.

So in 1995, he opened the poker tables at the Aviation Club in Paris, now considered the premier poker venue in the country. But in 1999, Bruno gave up his official position with the Aviation Club and started VIP-Gaming.

He didn't slack on his own game though, and in 2002 he had his first win in a major live tournament: the first No-Limit Hold'em World Heads-Up Championship in Vienna, Austria. There, he stunned and delighted the poker world by beating Amarillo Slim Preston. In 2003, Bruno cashed in two major Las Vegas tournaments.

Though he still considers the playing of poker to be secondary to his other business activities, there can be no doubt that he is a force to contend with when he's at the tables. He says: "I feel like I have never stopped trying to improve my poker abilities since I started playing poker and it's a goal for me to play better and better."

No wonder, then, that between his role in bringing poker to a larger group of European players and his own skill at the tables, Bruno is known as France's Ambassador of Poker.