At the 2012 World Championship Smith played Scott Rand in the first round and was beaten 0–3, without winning a leg. At the UK Open, Smith beat Rand 9–6 and came back from 4–8 down in the last 32 to force a decider against Dennis Priestley which he lost. In July, Smith won his first ever match in seven attempts at the World Matchplay following a 10–6 victory over Paul Nicholson. He faced Adrian Lewis in the last 16 and was beaten 7–13. After all 33 ProTour events of 2012 had been played, Smith was 19th on the Order of Merit, comfortably inside the top 32 who qualified for the Players Championship Finals. He was beaten 2–6 by Andy Hamilton in the first round.