grenv: when you play ponds to win instead of for the bkr ... then you wouldnt care much about being 3rd in this game and bet 1 .... this might help you to actually win a pond in the future ... suppose you get in the 3rd place 10 times ... the first 9 times you bet 1 ... and you make sure everyone knows (as they now do because its discussed here ;)) .. then the 10th time you bet 20 and will probably be in 2nd place .. or maybe even get the bonus and have a net game of 480 points .. which might even win you the total pond

in this example betting 1 is a winning strategy ... when you look at the bigger picture of more than 1 pond .. of course this will give him 9 times a 3rd place and only 1 first place ... while betting a high amount .. he might have had 3 second places and 7 times a 3rd place .. i would chose the single first place over the 3 second places .. although the latter might be better for my bkr

betting 1 is ones own choice ... as long as he doesnt inform anyone else ... its just a different strategy than the strategy which most top players use right now ...
it might change the strategy of some top players .. which i would like ..

but then again ... its us discussing why someone else made a certain move .. we can never be sure why he did it .. as he never told us .. and this is a mental game for a big part ;)