On Nov. 6, after a long battle with cancer, poker legend Hans "Tuna" Lund passed away at his home in Moundhouse, NV, aged 59.

His given name was Hans James Lund. Though the family called him Jimmy, the poker world knew him as Tuna. During one game an unknown player at the table said, "You are a fish, not a big tuna." Lund wanted to be considered a fish at the table, and so the name stuck. "Shark" would have been a more apt description for the way he ate up his opponents.

Though new players may not know him, before 1997 when he got divorced and decided to stay home with his kids, you would have found Tuna at almost any major tournament. He would be playing or sitting at the table discussing poker and answering people's questions. His house was cluttered with the trophies that he won over the years, including two bracelets from the World Series, a second- and third-place finish in the main event. A ten at the river kept him from winning the Championship in 1990.

He was born September 23, 1950, in San Jose, California, the son of Hans N. and Marie Lund. He graduated from Carson City High School and married Isabel Pancratz in 1992.

His love for poker started early when his whole family would play penny-ante poker together. Sometimes the pots got big. On one occasion when he was only ten, he lost a $900 pot, when his mother won his and his sister Carol's money on the first hand dealt. His mother dealt all three of them a pat full house. That quickly ended the game with the kids squealing!

As a boy he picked up pop bottles along the road to earn money and developed a strong work ethic. Though his father taught him the plumbing trade, Tuna decided early that plumbing wasn't for him. If he was going to do physical work, he would rather be in the scrap metal business, which he continued to dabble in throughout his life.

But what he loved most was beating the casinos out of money. It didn't matter if it was in the sports book, slots, or a promotion. He especially enjoyed making what he called free money. If he spotted a mistake, he was quick to step up to the window to place a large bet.

He loved a challenge. To pass time while he was receiving chemotherapy at the hospital, he decided to take $5 and see how much he could make during his stay. In his 5 days in the hospital he played an average of 18 hours a day, starting out in a 5- and 10-cent blind no-limit game. By the end of his stay he topped $2,000. I don't know if that is a record, but I have never heard of anything close.

Another hobby of his was looking for gold coins and trinkets. One time he found 4½ ounces of gold in a single day in a crack at the bottom of Otter Creek in California. In his last months I asked him if there was something that he would still like to do. He replied that he wanted to go back to Otter Creek and move a big rock that he was sure had some large nuggets under it and play poker against the new players, whom he called young puppies. Unfortunately, time ran out before he could carry out those plans.

He is survived by his children Lillian Michelle Lund and Hans James Lund II and three sisters, Carol Staggs, Jeannette Siri and Karen Hardy.

Buddy, you will be forever missed. RIP. -Brad Dougherty