Bet the river or check it?

[dpe8598]

What do you do when you are strong (have AK with top pair) and in position and you have led off w/ the betting and one guy is calling you down. Now its the river, and a card comes down like a Q. There are no straights or flushes showing, but you think the guy might actually have AQ (he was calling you down, but looked vulnerable). As a general rule do ya'll put in an extra bet or check here. I know there are 2 schools of thought on this and of course all of the specifics matter, but what is your general philosophy?

Generally, I try to do one of 2 things. Either get in a ton of money on the flop and turn, where I feel that I've gotten value out of my hand and I'm OK w/ checking the river. Or, if the pot is small and the bets have been smaller, I will try to get some extra value on the river. Nonetheless, I can see some weaknesses in these strategies and I'm curious what you do.

[pizzatron]

I'd usually check here i think. the one hand that you can squeeze the most value out of, an AQ, can now beat you. If he check-raises you 2-3x then you'd have a somewhat tough decision. I think it also depends on whether he is the kind of player that likes to call a PFR w/ AJ/AT oop...