Pretence of putting money on at the starting price (5)
I believe the answer is:
spoof
'pretence' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't see how one could define the other.
'of putting money on at the starting price' is the wordplay.
'of' becomes 'o''.
'putting money on' becomes 'of' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'at' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'the starting price' becomes 'sp' (abbreviation in betting).
'o'+'of'='oof'
'oof' put after 'sp' is 'SPOOF'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for spoof that I've seen before include "Take-off" , "Parody - prank" , "Parody - hoaxing game" , "Parody - hoax" , "Satirical imitation" .)