what does "outplay" mean?

[Monty Cantsin]

[ QUOTE ]
I've always heard to "outplay" someone is to make them lay down a hand that would otherwise beat you at the showdown.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I think a lot of people have this definition.

However, if you interpret the phrase this way you are going to misread a lot of posts on this board.

For example, when someone says:

"A call here is only +EV if you are sure you can outplay these opponents postflop."

and you interpret that to mean

"A call here is only +EV if you can make these opponents lay down a winning hand postflop."

You are going to be drawing a lot of incorrect conclusions.

Whereas if you interpret it to mean "play better in a general sense", maximizing your wins and minimizing your losses, a quote like that makes much more sense.

This particular issue caused me a lot of confusion until I changed how I understood the term.

/mc