Laurie Tournier
Laurie Tournier, more commonly known as “Lali”, is a Brazilian poker professional, content creator and member of PokerStars Team Pro.
Lali moved from the strategic battleground of professional chess to a similar arena in professional poker, and has since studied and worked her way up to playing at the tables alongside the world’s best players – streaming some of her biggest moments live on Twitch along the way.
Now 10 years into her career, the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) 2021 was an important series for Tournier. Early on in the prestigious series, she achieved a long-held aim as she won her first-ever WCOOP title, the US$109 Heads-Up tournament – suited to her chess background – and US$15,000 to go with it.
The only downside was this was an off-stream win, and the shared experience of winning with her fans was missing. This was to be rectified just 12 days later when Tournier won her second WCOOP title, a very difficult US$1,050 progressive knock-out event. She took a staggering US$182,000 in front of her Twitch followers.
Tournier represents the Brazilian ESports team FURIA Esports alongside PokerStars Team Pro teammates André Akkari and Rafael Moraes, who is also Lali’s husband. The local community element of FURIA and poker in Brazil is particularly special to her; she was part of the same study group as her Brazilian teammates prior to joining, and she’s now looking to inspire new players to find their own community in poker.
Lali also takes great joy in taking part in PokerStars flagship Women’s Sunday tournaments, of which she is a previous winner. The tournaments are a gateway to online poker for many, and she hopes that her own story can help inspire more women to start playing poker.
Lali plays online poker exclusively at PokerStars, where she plays under the username “LaliTournier”.