Fed up with drawing curves with pen tool

I tried to draw curves with pen tool in photoshop but the curves are always not as smooth as I want it to. I spent hours and hours drawing and redrawing but to no avail. After stroking/filling it… the edge is always not as smoothed. Was it because of not enough anchor points or is there a trick that I can applied to ensure a smooth stroking? Any blind areas that I’ve overlooked? Any tips? Thanks! or is there other programs I can use to draw a better smoothed curve?