Oliver Nejad

Oliver “Ali” Nejad is best known as the off-screen announcer on the NBC’s Poker After Dark and the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. He is also a commentator on ESPN’s Pro-Am Poker Equalizer series, and has also been a co-commentator with Chad Brown on an episode of the Ultimate Poker Challenge. He himself played on Poker After Dark and was the first player knocked out when Gabe Kaplan flopped a set of 10’s while Nejad flopped a set of 4’s. He finished 2nd in a week of poker analysts at the end of season 3 of the program.

While still a high school student, he hosted and reported for two television shows on the local NBC affiliate. Hoping to continue working in local television, he stayed close to home for college, enrolling at nearby Cal-Berkeley in 1996. At the same time, he also started down another career path: poker.

In 2003, Nejad’s poker and television career paths collided. While playing in the PartyPoker Million Tournament, he became friendly with Mori Eskandani, then the Tournament Director of Poker Superstars who currently serves as a producer for the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and Poker After Dark. Eskandani hired Nejad as the Master of Ceremonies for the Poker Superstars event in 2004, and the two have enjoyed a continued working relationship in televised poker ever since.

In 1999, Nejad left Berkeley to pursue playing poker full-time and before long, he had done it all: low limit player, dealer, prop player, online player, and finally, high limit player. But despite his financial success in the poker world, Nejad still had the broadcasting itch. In 2002, he hosted an MTV pilot that was not picked up, but marked the beginning of his return to television.

In the February 7, 2008 episode of Poker Road Radio, Joe Sebok announced that Ali will be the new host of Poker Road Radio. His tenure began at the WPT Commerce event starting on February 26, 2008.