25NL - QJo, in position, pay off small river bet?

[mookboi]

I find myself in these situations a lot - where I'm facing a river bet for 1/4th or 1/3rd the pot, from unpredictable players. And I always seem lost here, so I figured I'd post some.

Villain unknown.

Cryptologic
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $0.15/$0.25
6 players
Converter (http://www.neildewhurst.com/hand-converter)

Stack sizes:
UTG: $31.05
UTG+1: $27.68
CO: $23.10
Hero: $34.48
SB: $22.50
BB: $19.95

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is Button with J/images/graemlins/heart.gif Q/images/graemlins/spade.gif
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, CO folds, <font color="#cc0000">Hero raises to $1.25</font>, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls.

Flop: Q/images/graemlins/diamond.gif 8/images/graemlins/diamond.gif A/images/graemlins/heart.gif ($2.9, 2 players)
UTG+1 checks, <font color="#cc0000">Hero bets $1.5</font>, UTG+1 calls.

Turn: 7/images/graemlins/spade.gif ($5.9, 2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks.

River: 9/images/graemlins/heart.gif ($5.9, 2 players)
<font color="#cc0000">UTG+1 bets $1.5</font>, Hero calls.

Results:
Final pot: $8.9

[vixticator]

What the heck did you check the turn for? Bet at least $4.

[ajmargarine]

More on flop, nearer to pot. As played, call river. You're good enough for it to be +EV as he'll have 2 diamonds.