And that's about it.
Let's not forget that Palps calls out for help to Ani before the Jedi show up. In the novel (or at least that fragment that was posted here) it clearly says that Palps sensed Ani approaching.
So he had two options. The first was to employ himself to the full extent of his abilities to try and beat Mace, and then face Ani surrounded by the corpses of the masters, exhausted and wielding his sith lightsaber. Ani wouldn't be pleased by that sight and would have probably attacked Palps. He would be exhausted after the fight with Mace and there were no guarantees that he could have beaten him in the first place. A losing scenario for Palps even if he somehow managed to beat both Ani and Mace.
The other option was to let Mace "win", let himself be disarmed and then appear as nothing but a helpless old man in the eyes of Ani. It's interesting that Ani arrives just after Palps has lost his lightsaber. He knew that Mace could not stand against both of them.
In the novel it's stated that Mace takes advantage of a fear he believes to stem from Palps to boost his fighting skills. But then Palps mocks him and reveals that the fear that Mace senses is not his, but probably Anakin's. So, at least to some degree, Palps was pretending.
In the end I think it's most likely that Palps played a very dangerous game with Mace and Ani, and won. In spite of that, I don't think Palps could have beaten Mace fair and square, but that's just a personal opinion and I don't think anyone can say for sure. However, Palps was a sith, and a smart one at that, so he cheated whenever he could. That's why he won in the end.
Oh, and about Yoda being raped by Palps, I always thought that he had to retreat because Palps was getting reinforcements, not because he was losing. I thought it was a stalemate during the whole fight.