second hand at the table, no reads. I have to play this hard because im in the SB correct?

PokerStars Limit Hold'em, $6.00 BB (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, Q
3 folds, MP2 raises, 3 folds, Hero 3-bets, 1 fold, MP2 calls

Flop: (7 SB) 6, 2, 8 (2 players)
Hero bets, MP2 calls

Turn: (4.5 BB) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets, MP2 calls

River: (6.5 BB) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets

Total pot: $39 (6.5 BB) | Rake: $1

is your river bet a value bet or a bluff? or unknown?

Its a bluff bet. I'm hoping he has A9-Ak

I don't see this working as a bluff. If he's willing to call the turn with his AK, would he fold the river? As a value bet I'm waffling. You beat AJ, AT, and Axc (where x doesn't pair or straight - edit: that'd be exactly A3c) but there's a good chance AJ and AT would've folded the turn. You're behind middle pocket pairs, AK, A9, A with a paired kicker. Plus without any info, he might've raised preflop and called your 3! with 56s or 69s or something (or even something really weird).

If you'd c/c, you probably might as well bet. Too tired to do the numbers right now, but I don't see enough combos where you bet and win to make that right. Maybe it's weaktight, but I give up here, unless you want to c/c largely for future info.

well a9 made a straight, and ak might cap pf

Ok this makes sense to me now. The only hand I could be bluffing against that he would actually fold is probably AK. -EV on the river. How bout...Should I have slowed down after the flop or the turn?

Well, thats certainly something worth considering haha. I like your point about AK capping pf, I think its quite obvious to me now he missed his flush on the river and proceeded to fold.

If he did miss his flush, it was actually likely a good bluff, since there aren't many flush draws that don't have a pair (or a straight) by the river.

mmmk...So my play was actually probably the right move, but I made it for the wrong reason then?

Live I check/fold river usually. Online I check/call river and maybe even turn.

But my new thing is to play bad always

IF he had a flush draw. I'm not convinced he was on the FD and would fold it having paired up often enough to make this the right play. (Obviously since he did fold it's more likely that it was, but that doesn't matter.)

same on all counts

Without a read I think you are best off with a check/call on this river. Chances are this guy doesn't have a pair because of how passive he played the hand. The only hands he is probably going to bet on the river are straights and overcards as a bluff.

I don't like bet/fold here because this is an easy board to bluff raise the river. When you bet the river it has to be to get value from AJ, AT, and maybe KQ because most players aren't going to be folding a pair or AK/AQ here. Overall, I think it is more profitable to check and pick off bluffs than to try and get value from a thin part of villains range.

Value-betting and check-calling are pretty close in this spot, it all depends on how thin you normally vb / how high your bluffing range is. Plus how observant the player is.