Position question - a Maniac, two TAGs, and a Rock to my left

[DrewOnTilt]

I found myself in an odd situation today in a live game and am curious as to what, if any, seat change I should have made. This game was overall highly profitable, so I did not want to leave the table.

It was an 8 handed game. To my right was a guy who played decently preflop but chased his draws too far and without proper odds postflop. To my immediate left was a maniac. The next three seats after the maniac were occupied by two TAGs and one Rock. Both TAGs were actually a bit loose preflop but played competently postflop. There was an open seat to the left of the Rock.

The maniac would constantly three-bet me preflop with all manner of hands. This was fine until the TAGs to his left caught on to his shenanigans and began coldcalling and sometimes 4-betting with more marginal hands. The TAGs would also reraise the maniacs opening raises with hands such as 7 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]7 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]J [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], and even K [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]Q [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

What is my best positional move here? Should I have kept my seat, where I was out of position and unable to isolate the maniac but able to use him to some degree to protect my hands? Remember that I also had another weak player to my immediate right.

Should I have moved to the open seat, where the maniac would have been 4 people to my right with 2 TAGs and a Rock in between us? Here, I would have had position on the maniac and occasionally would have been able to isolate him, but I also often would have faced a 3-bet from one of the TAGs or even the Rock on a regular basis.

Once the Maniac showed down hands such as 7 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]5 [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] and T [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]9 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] after having 3-bet preflop, the TAGs rightfully lost all respect for his raises, and postflop play became more difficult for me.

Example:
I open raise from MP with A [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]T [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]
Maniac 3-bets
Both TAGs call, I call

The flop comes J [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]8 [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]2 [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]
I check, Maniac bets, and both TAGs call.

At this point I was sure that I was ahead of the Maniac - he had Q [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]3 [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] - but was not sure of where I stood in relation to the two TAGs, or how good my various weak draws really were. The only other option that I could possibly see as viable on this hand is to bet into the Maniac on the flop and hope that he raises, but that would be a pretty thin bet.

Should I have moved to the open seat, or should I have stayed where I was? What other adjustments should I have made, given that other players with position on the Maniac had begun to call and reraise with marginal hands?

[DrewOnTilt]

Bumpity bumpbumpbumpadump [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[BriPlay]

Boy, kinda depends on your style..
for me..id move to the other seat..get a drink and play tight waiting for hands that are worth getting involved in multiway (NOT AT!). My guess is your tight play will give you respect with the TAGs, so that when you cap they will give you respect, making it possible to be heads up after the flop. (you could even say exactly that to them as you move seats!)

Brian