grenv: You have finished almost 100 ponds. Is this the first time you noticed that the last person bet 1, or generally less than the maximum? I saw it so many times before...these guys just see there's no way to win the ponds and try to make the game more interesting or for whatever other reason they just bet low, having, from their point of view, no chance to move on to th enext round. I have done it myself several times. Check this:

http://brainking.com/cz/Pond?bms=10&g=602

I could secure myself a third position but I tried to win the pond by bidding lower than what Rose had left, hoping that Rose would go even lower.