Instead of a light injection the night before the smoke inject all you can into it. Pulled and panned with some liquid should have helped a lot if you sealed the pan up with a lid or some foil just make sure it's sealed tight. When it gets up to around 190 start probing it and when it feels like a knife going through soft butter it's done and the finished temp will vary from one brisket to the next. You can use whatever for a probe when I first heard about doing this they were using a toothpick for the probe when it went in easy it was done.
With injecting hours before the smoke make sure you do a couple of things. Keep it cold. Cold injection, cold fridge, start with very cold meat. Also make sure the injection is fairly salty. Most injections are, but it keeps things from growing. I agree that if you are going to inject, put the spurs to it and inject all the meat will hold and then some. I probe at 190 also and then I check it every 2 degrees. I personally pull most of mine between 196 and 200, I think 205 is a recipe for dryness but I've had more than one go 208+
I don't like the no resistance (room temp butter probe) method. It should hold just a wee bit. I saw a youtube vid a while back that said that sticking a pick in a jar of peanut butter was a better reference and I wholeheartedly agree. I used to tell people that probing should feel like probing a cake, but I like the peanut butter analogy a bit better.
Flats defy logic. A packer has 60-70% of the flat not protected by the point yet they are harder when separated for most people (I am one of those people)
I smoke selects lower than I smoke choice. Interested in the youtube vid the guy above posted. I used to live off of select brisket (from 2000-2010 I probably AVERAGED 3 a month, smoking for home, church, etc...) because they were roughly .99 to 1.29 a lb the entire time, only bought choice if they were the same price. Turned out a subpar one once in a blue moon but once I nailed it - I nailed it. Now they are always the same price so I don't buy selects unless that just happens to be all that are in the case and I'm jonesing really bad.
I recommend spending the extra $ on a full packer and splitting it on the long bias. Higher initial investment but splitting one gives you 2 cooks. Also, I know walmart is bad BUT it's where I buy all my briskets. I won't buy any meat at walmart that's not cryovaced from the processor. All packers here at walmart are Excel and Excel uses blue printing on cryovac, select is black printing. They are always mixed, and I asked the guy filling up the counter one time why that was. He said every one in the case came out of the same box - so go figure. Every other grocer for 50 miles around me wants 5-6 bucks a lb for a dam brisket. Sam's and Costco sell prime but my membership lapsed a couple years ago so I'm not sure what they are running right now.
