Direct Hidden Pair

Direct Hidden Pair is a Hidden Pair that hands you a placement. Two values in a house share the same two candidate cells, so the other notes in those cells can go — that's the Hidden Pair part. But if cleaning those notes leaves another digit in the same house with only one cell left, you get to place it right there, no extra step.

What is Direct Hidden Pair?

A Hidden Pair locks two values into two cells — those cells are theirs, and every other note in them is noise. Direct Hidden Pair keeps going: once the noise is gone, it checks the same house for a digit that now has only one cell left. If there is one, that's the placement, and you skip the separate Hidden Single pass.

How to spot it

Start by finding a Hidden Pair — two values in a house whose candidates are exactly the same two cells. Strip the other notes out of those cells in your head, then sweep the house again for a digit that's been reduced to a single candidate. If one shows up, that's your placement. Pencil marks are pretty much required here, since the whole trick depends on seeing which two values share which two cells.

The logic

Two values have to appear in the house, and between them they only have two candidate cells — so those two cells are theirs and nothing else belongs there. Once the extra notes are gone, the house is a little emptier. If some other digit now has a single candidate left in that house, that cell has to be it, because there's nowhere else for it to go.