Bad Hand, Good Hands

Not at all happy with how I played the following hand yesterday:

Merge, $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 5 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.
MP: $50.50 (101 bb)
CO: $59.04 (118.1 bb)
BTN: $44.23 (88.5 bb)
SB: $48.67 (97.3 bb)
Hero (BB): $50.75 (101.5 bb)
Preflop: Hero is BB with Q 8
3 folds, SB raises to $1.50, Hero calls $1

SB is a very aggro stealer with a low FT3B% number, so I figured that just calling here was better than RR'ing. Folding is OK, but calling here isn't horrible, as my hand plays pretty well post-flop

Flop: ($3) 7 T 9 (2 players)
SB bets $2, Hero calls $2

I definitely should be raising here. Calling is super weak and basically is turning my hand face-up: "Look everyone! I've either got a small part of this flop or a draw!"

Turn: ($7) K (2 players)
SB bets $5.25, Hero calls $5.25

"Look everyone! It's a draw!"

River: ($17.50) 5 (2 players)
SB bets $11.66, Hero folds

"Look everyone! My draw missed!" Ugh. This is not how you should play a draw in NLHE.


Okay, so that's the bad news for today's session. To make myself feel better, here are two other hands that were dealt back-to-back in that same session: 


Final Board: A A 2 A 6
Hero mucked A 7 and won $16.07

and:

Final Board: 9 7 7 7 5
Hero mucked 9 7 and won $16.41

Why can't I always flop this good?


All-in for now....
-Bug