Let $p_t(a,b;n)$ denote the number of partitions of $n$ such that the number of $t$ hooks is congruent to $a \bmod{b}$. For $t\in \{2, 3\}$, arithmetic progressions $r_1 \bmod{m_1}$ and $r_2 \bmod{m_2}$ on which $p_t(r_1,m_1; m_2 n + r_2)$ vanishes were established in recent work by Bringmann, Craig, Males, and Ono using the theory of modular forms. Here we offer a direct combinatorial proof of this result using abaci and the theory of $t$-cores and $t$-quotients.