I'm having trouble (MAJOUR TROUBLE) trying to vertex hack with Maya....

I can vertex hack in Anim8or and 3DS Max (2009), but I can't get them to work at all in Maya (2010)...
Some say to just use either of those programs, but the truth is, I can't.... They're too messy and their UI's look bad to me, plus I'm 'experienced' in vertex modelling in Maya, so vertex hacking would only take me a matter of minutes to make and then test new hacks in Brawl right away...

Any help would be INSANELY AWESOME!