It is normal that you get bad beats and that not too scarce either. The variance in poker is very high. The average variance in poker is 100 big blinds on 100 hands. So if you have a win rate of 5 big blinds in 100 hands it can happen that after 100 hands you lost 95 big blinds even though you did everything right. You can't prevent bad beats. But what you can do is control the pot. If you don't have a monster hand then you don't want to be playing for a big pot. Top pair with a mediocre kicker is no monster. Let's assume you're in the CO with AT. Everyone folds in front of you. You raise preflop and the big blind calls. The flop comes 84Ar. Your opponent checks, you raise again, your opponent calls. On the turn there is another 4. Your opponent checks again and now you can check so as not to let the pot get out of hand. You can do this because you don't have to protect your hand. No or only a few draws are possible. It has other advantages. If you had bet on the turn, you would often only pay out better hands. For example, your opponent could have three of a kind, or they could have an ace with a better kicker, or they could have something like A8. So you could be in the back by now. You avoid your opponent reraising you. You keep the pot small. With worse hands, your opponent will often fold when you raise again on the turn. You show weakness. Your opponent may be bluffing on the river or he may be more likely to call a bet from you.
