Handling calling stations and maniacs :E

You know the guy who plays absolutely appaulingly, whether his weakness is calling or raising doesn't matter here, just that he does one or the other the vast majority of the time.

Unless they get very lucky, that particular player will lose chips to me. That's a given.

But what I'm noticing is that when I'm at the table with a particularly consistant calling station or maniac, my proffit from the rest of the table goes down dramatically (frequently into the negatives).

The presence of a calling station means I can't bluff anyone else because this guy is still in the hand. And the maniac forces me to fold in a lot of situations where I could otherwise have an expected proffit.

Is there a trick to playing at a table with a calling station/maniac, something more effective than falling back on playing straight forward abc poker?

Here's something else I'm noticing, and I don't really want to admit to believing this because I know goes against common wisdom but I'm convinced I'm right. Sitting to the immediate left of a maniac is the worst seat at the table. I win big with them on my left and lose/break even with them on my right. Here's why: If they raise most pots, and you're next to act, you've got the whole table to act behind you. If you choose to make a stand, you've still got to get through four or five other players behind you and frequently they'll be limp-raising the maniac and you'll be caught in between. Quite simply, being to their left makes you first to act in as many pots as he raises.

And post flop even out of position you know what he's going to do a good amount of the time, because of this I'd rather play him out of position than have to call a raise or make a re-raise with half of the table behind me on every hand that I choose to play.

Any thoughts ???