Subpatch with the tab button. Useing subpatch you will get the smoothness you are looking for. But only 3-4 point polygons can be subpatched so building the model carefully is important.
Best thing you can do is go through the peppers and lava lamp tutorial. In both of those you will use subpatches for modeling and learn a ton. They are free also.
http://simplylightwave.com/movie_pag...mhtml?tut_id=4
http://simplylightwave.com/movie_pag...tml?tut_id=512
If your feeling good about what you learned you can buy a few points and mabye try the Stratocaster guitar tutorial. Thats over 11 hours of 98% Subpatch modeling, trust me you will learn a lot.