there is one reason why a player would bet 1 when he would be in the last place ...

he is convinced he has lost anyway ... he bets 1 ... he does this in all his pond games .. he thereby shows a tendecy .. which the regular players might pick up ... and at some time when he thinks he changes his bet to 12 instead of 1 .. and might win the pond from the 3rd position which he would have fallen in otherwise

(i do this a lot while playing squash ... i hit a ball almost exactly the same for quite some time ... and then when i really need the point .. i suddenly switch tactics .. it will often give me more than 1 point as my opponent is a bit confused from that point and might be thinking too much .... i am not playing squash on a very high level though ;))