The biggest change that you can make in playing draws is to play them aggressively rather than just calling bets. When you just call with a draw you do two things. First, you signal the strength of your hand to your opponent. This allows them to extract chips from you, and bluff you, regardless of the strength of their hand. The second thing it does is, it reduces the value you will receive if you do hit your draw. Making it obvious that you are on a draw will give your opponent reasons to check or fold when the card you need does come.
Betting or raising draws, however, does the exact opposite. It disguises the strength of your hand. Your opponent will not know if you have a made hand or not. When the draw does come, the chances that you will get paid off are much higher than if you had just called. There is the additional benefit of folding equity. Sometimes you can win a hand, without even improving, by causing doubt in your opponent and getting them to fold.
Playing draws aggressively requires that you understand who you are up against. What is the probability that your opponent will call you if you do raise? If it's high, you probably want to take a different approach. If it's low, the play is a viable (and profitable) one.
Another important consideration with draws is the strength of your draw. If you just have a straight draw or a flush draw with no other outs, your hand is not as strong and should be played more cautiously. For example, having a hand like 9-8 off suit when the flop comes K-7-6. This is not typically a hand you would want to be willing to go all in with. The same goes for 9-8 suited on a K-Q-5 with two of your suit board.
Hands that are strong are ones that have additional outs like over cards or the combination straight/flush draw. For example, if you have A-K of hearts on a Q-10-4 two heart board, that's a very strong flop for you. You have outs to a gut shot straight (4), any heart (8) and it's quite possible the ace or king (6) would put you in the lead as well. The same goes for a hand like 9-8 of diamonds on a K-7-6 two diamond flop. Here you have 15 outs to hit either the straight or the flush. On these types of flops, you should generally be willing to go all in at any time, regardless of your opponent's propensity for calling, as you will usually be the favorite over most hands your opponent might have - the one exception might be is if you are a big stack and your opponent is also a big stack.
How many times have you heard a poker player say “I can never hit a flush” after calling bet after bet after bet and watching their stack size dwindle? Too many to count? Avoid that dilemma by picking the spots where you play drawing hands carefully and by playing the draws you do hit aggressively. Use position. Play drawing hands against opponents that know how to fold a hand or will pay you off big time if you do hit. Draws don't have to be a chip leak if you don't make them one.
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