Was the bluff right?

Registered to post this, figured 2+2 was the best place to get some serious responses.

Witnessed this at my final table tonight. Pokerstars, $20+2 180 person sit-n-go. First is around $1080, second is maybe $800. Table gets to heads-up. Player1 has been basically running the table with solid raises and solid hands for the past 30 minutes. Player2 has been playing really tight trying to move up in rankings. Doubles up on a lucky hand, finds himself heads-up. Doubles up again and finds himself even with Player1. Their match to this point has been preflop raising and folding, barely any flops and no turns. Here's the hand I want to discuss:

PokerStars Game #3375779137: Tournament #16726239, Hold'em No Limit - Level XV (2000/4000) - 2005/12/19 - 06:54:41 (ET)
Table '16726239 14' Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: Player2 (134706 in chips)
Seat 4: Player1 (135294 in chips)
Player2: posts the ante 200
Player1: posts the ante 200
Player1: posts small blind 2000
Player2: posts big blind 4000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Player1 said, "chop?"
Player2 said, "nah"
Player1: raises 8000 to 12000
Player1 said, "ok gl"
Player2: calls 8000
*** FLOP *** [Jh 4h 9c]
Player2: checks
Player2 said, "u2"
Player1: checks
*** TURN *** [Jh 4h 9c] [Th]
Player2: bets 8000
Player1: raises 8000 to 16000
Player2: raises 32000 to 48000
Player1: calls 32000
*** RIVER *** [Jh 4h 9c Th] [Qd]
Player2: checks
Player1: bets 75094 and is all-in
Player2: calls 74506 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Player1: shows [Ah 3c] (high card Ace)
Player2: shows [7s 8s] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
Player2 collected 269412 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 269412 | Rake 0
Board [Jh 4h 9c Th Qd]
Seat 1: Player2 (big blind) showed [7s 8s] and won (269412) with a straight, Eight to Queen
Seat 4: Player1 (button) (small blind) showed [Ah 3c] and lost with high card Ace

What I'm asking is (a) was Player1 asking for a chop a tell at all? Player2 was gaining momentum before this hand, coming back from a 3:1 dog. (b) was Player1's semi-bluff on the turn right? (c) was his bluff on the river right? and (d) after all that, did Player2 make the right call?

Edited to change the names. I'll edit the hand history soon.

IMO they wanted to chop cuz they got scared of losing. River bluff is terrible. Pot is too big to get a reasonable hand to fold. I would probably call that with top pair off the flop. Worst mistake is Nikki checking that flop. Normally we hide player names and use a hand converter to get that ugly HH into a readaable format, check the FAQ and other posts for links.

Welcome to the forums.

Steve