Firm use of a poker

I have had difficult start with my first meerschaum pipe. I like the pipe, yes, but almost every single one of the smoking experiences have turned brutally humid before I've gotten to the half-way. I have tried everything - I dried the tobacco till it was dry as sand in Sahara, I slowed my draws and left longer times between them, I packed lighter - nothing helped.
Though I packed light, I needed to use tamper, because the pipe went out all the time, and I had to relight once in a minute. So, eventually light packing came too tihgt. As I used the poker of my pipe tool, I could feel the hard surface under some light packing, and under that surface, there always was a LOT of moisture!
So, tonight, as soon as I felt the first sign of gurgling, I get my poker out and did some violence to the pack, after which it wasn't hard anymore. And after that, my pipe smoked cool and dry and delicious.
So my question is, does anybody else do this. Is there any obvious faults in this method?

I read somewhere that 'you may gently disturb the ashes' but what I did was a bit more, and I did it purposefully before the moisture could get too bad, since I knew it would.

Thanks everyone!
More drying is not a possibility, since it would go to dust if I tried. And yesterday it was actually rather moist stuff, and still worked fine after I loosened it. I can't use pipe cleaner, since the pipe is bent and doesn't allow a cleaner to go through when the stem is attached.
Of course I was careful when using the poker - I don't want to scrape the meer. I guess I need to try next time just making a couple of airholes through tobacco, at least until I'll find out why the hard chunch of tobacco appears every time. I packed purposefully very light, tamped carefully... and still it did.
To mention, I don't have same problem with my peterson briar.