AK -- should I start doing this more often?

[private joker]

20/40 at the HG. (Sorry for the third hand post tonight; this is the last one).

I open in EP with AKo. Folded to the BB, who is unknown but hasn't put a lot of chips into a lot of pots in the brief time we've been playing. He calls.

Flop comes J63r. BB bets, I raise, he calls.

My standard line HU like this is to take a free card and if I don't improve on the river, either call or fold depending on reads (will he bet A-high or worse, etc.).

If it's checked to me, I've been betting the flop and turn and checking the river behind (UI). But when it's donked to me, the free card play works fairly often -- but when I miss my 6 outs A-high hasn't been winning a ton of showdowns. But also I've moved up from donktastic 6/12 and 9/18 games into the yellow chip games, where people know folding is an option. So I'm working on this, and so...

...in this hand I decided to try betting the turn and checking behind on the river if I miss. I bet the [brick -- I think it was a 7 or 8] turn and he thought for a bit, then shuffle-shuffle-scowl-mucked.

I think he probably folded bottom pair, but who knows. Point is, does this line show more profit than the free card play? Have I been f*cking this up for a year? (Against some really passive players, I've even been just peeling the flop and folding the turn).