Can "quick tricks" be a guide to defense in bridge?
No - primarily because the spot cards are never irrelevant. (Assume standard leads here for simplicity, though similar inferences are available for all lead agreements.) 

For instance if you hold Ace three times and partner has led a (presumed 4th best) 8 spot, partner holds the King as well. Partner also holds exactly one Quack (Queen or Jack).

Read that again. 

Why you ask? Because partner isn't holding three honours with two contiguous (He would have led the higher of the two contiguous honours in that case), and that leaves only the following possible holdings


KQ98x
KJ98x


With any of the following holdings the best lead is another card:


KQJ8x => K should be lead
KQT8x => K should be lead
KJT8x => J should be lead
QJT8x => Q should be lead
QJ98x => Q should be lead
KT98x => T should be lead
QT98x => T should be lead
JT98x => J should be lead


If partner has lead the 7-spot and you can see the 8-spot in your hand or dummy (or played by declarer to the first trick) all the same inferences are available with appropriate substitution. Likewise if partner leads the 6-spot and the 7- and 8-spot are both visible. Or if partner leads the 5-spot and and the 6-through-8 show up by trick one.

You now know where 3 of partner's point are, guaranteed, on a hand where partner doesn't have many points apparently because you have 7 or 8 (your Ace in his suit and another possible early entry). You are almost ready, before trick one is over, to know Declarer's entire hand.

These situations are all identified by having a Rule-of-Eleven-Count (value of spot-card led plus count of visible higher spots) of eight with Ace seen in your own hand. 

Count; count again; and again; until it becomes an obsession. Visualize the possible holdings around the table, and vet them against the information available from the bidding and play so far. Only when these inferences start to become second nature to you will you be a competent intermediate-level player.



Note that as third hand in these situations, you know more about the distribution around the table than Declarer does. That is the Defenders' Advantage, and typically only lasts a couple of tricks. Now is when you can lay a ruse for an unsuspecting Declarer.