When the Board is Paired

[mojobluesman]

I'm having a tough time playing when the board is paired on the flop.

If it's a card out of the playing zone, I generally feel comfortable betting if I paired the 3rd card (any card) on the flop and have two pair with a decent kicker. I don't know if I'm having a bad run of luck in this situation or not, but I'm constantly either running into the set (raised on turn) or an overcard comes on either the Turn and River and beats my two pair.

I'm obviously doing something incorrectly because I'm leaking like crazy in that spot, but don't you have to try to protect a hand like that.

Here's one spot where I didn't have a kicker, but I had to bet the flop here didn't I?

Party Poker 0.50/1 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
<font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, UTG+1 calls, <font color="#666666">2 folds</font>, MP3 calls, CO calls, Button calls, <font color="#666666">1 fold</font>, Hero checks.

Flop: (5.50 SB) 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(5 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">Hero bets</font>, UTG+1 calls, <font color="#CC3333">MP3 raises</font>, CO calls, Button calls, Hero calls, UTG+1 calls.

Turn: (7.75 BB) Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(5 players)</font>
Hero checks, UTG+1 checks, <font color="#CC3333">MP3 bets</font>, CO calls, Button calls, Hero folds, UTG+1 folds.

River: (10.75 BB) T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] <font color="#0000FF">(3 players)</font>
<font color="#CC3333">MP3 bets</font>, CO folds, <font color="#CC3333">Button raises</font>, <font color="#CC3333">MP3 3-bets</font>, <font color="#CC3333">Button caps</font>, MP3 calls.

Final Pot: 18.75 BB