[Garland]

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First, don't you think a raise on the button provides more deception when you have medium or small pocket pairs?

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Yes it is, but at what price? People will be hard pressed to let go of top pair, especially for the pot that you just caused to make really big. Sets are already deceptive in nature, I don't think you need to raise on the button in this case. If you want to raise there for deception, I'd do it with a medium suited connector or something else creative, not a small pocket.

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so that if a ragged flop with or without a high card comes up and its checked to you, you may be able to pick up the pot with a bet?

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With 4+ limpers who paid 2 bets, you're not picking up the pot with a single bet on the flop. Trust me.

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Second, why do we want the blinds to fold? Because if we hit our set on the flop, don't we want more players in to possibly call it down?

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If you knew you were going to flop a set, of course you'd want everyone involved. The cold hard reality of the matter is, you're only going to flop a set 1 out of 8 times. You'll see a set only 1 out of 6 times with all 5 cards out. Sets are really tough to get. You don't want random hands like the blinds to beat you because they become difficult to play when they get involved. They're the ones who are more likely to hit 2 pair on some ragged flop than anyone else. If you have a medium or high pair, you should try to drive out the blinds or make them pay to play.

Garland