26071985 is the PokerStars identity of German pro Christoph Vogelsang who hails from Sassenberg in the Münsterland. As you might have guessed, his screen name is taken from his date of birth 26th July 1985. At Full Tilt Christoph played under the moinker "Tight-Man1" where he earned over $2m playing at the highest stakes online.
Christoph's ascent in the online poker world is unparalleld in that just four weeks after making a couple of $10 deposits back in 2010 (his first ever deposits) he was already playing $25/$50 NLHE. Vogelsang puts this almost unbelievable feat down to luck, telling Pokerlistings in 2014 that "I think I got luckier than 99% of all players."
While luck undoubtedly had a big part to play in his meteroic rise, there's no denying his skills as years later Vogelsang is still playing NLHE at the highest stakes online.
In 2013, Vogelsang was one of the group of elite NLHE players who could regularly be seen in what became known as "the MalACEsia games" over at Full Tilt when the sharks turned up in force at the $400/$800 ante tables to play against super-rich Malaysian businessman and amateur poker player Paul Phua. Tight-Man1 was one of the biggest winners in the game, at one point winning $1.2m in just two days. He also won his biggest ever online pot during these sessions, scooping a $311k monster from Doug "WCGRider" Polk making a full house against Polk's top two pair. You can see the hand in full here.
Mirroring his quick ascent to financial success online, Vogelsang's live tourney career also got off to a flier with his first cash raking him in $621,321 at the EPT London £50k Super High Roller in October 2013. His third cash, just seven months later netted him an enormous $4,480,001 as he finished third in 2014's WSOP $1m buy-in Big One for One Drop. However, Vogelsang made it clear in interviews that he only had a small % of his own action. He didn't clarify exactly how much, just that it was somewhere between 3%-20%.
In total Vogelsang now has close to $7.4m in live tourney winnings and he plays mainly high roller events in Europe or the USA.
Vogelsang lives in London where he studied at the London School of Economics and is practicing Christian. He says that his faith helps him in his chosen career, noting that, "As a Christian, you tend to be optimistic, which is very helpful in poker."