Well, depending on the version of maya you have you can use the interactive polygon creation mode. They added it in 2010 (I think). Go to the create menu>polygon and at the bottom check the box "interactive creation".
If you do not have this option then you are using a version of maya before they added it. In this case Maya creates a unit primitive at the origin (0,0,0). You will then just have to create, then drag the primitive into a starting position manually.
-Rick
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675