I like this line a lot. Ive taken to raising the river in the face of an aggressor, because in my experience, it is unlikely that you'll get three-bet. This is a perfect hand to do it with, since your kicker plays.

Sometimes, you lose an extra bet, but the way I see it, I would have lost more had I raised the turn and gotten 3-bet, or I would have lost close the same if I'd raised the flop, and gotten 3-bet and then bet into on the turn. Bottom line is that HU, holding a hand like AJ with top pair, you're going to showdown 100% of the time.

The key question is extracting value when ahead, and losing the least when behind. The previous paragraphd talks about losing the least. The next paragraph talks about extracting value.

The benefit to raising the river comes when you're playing a TAG/LAG who might have been showing early street agrression on a marginal hand. In this case, I'm talking about a weak ace, or perhaps a hand like QQ that for some reason he didnt want to reraise preflop OOP against you. Often times, these guys holding something respectable like TPNK or a decent sized pocket pair, will bet thier hands like the nuts, and you'll get maximum value by raising the river.

nh.