Hamilton began the 2012–13 season ranked number 32. He could not qualify for the first four ranking events, as he lost 4–5 against Michael White at the Wuxi Classic, 3–5 against Jimmy Robertson at the Shanghai Masters, 3–6 against Ryan Day at the International Championship and withdrew from the Australian Goldfields Open.&lt;ref name="WWWS 2012/2013"&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; He lost 2–6 to Ian Burns in the qualifying stage of the UK Championship, but then defeated Burns 5–2 and Jamie Cope 5–0 to reach the last 32 of the 2013 German Masters. He recorded a 5–4 victory over Judd Trump, and then lost 2–5 to Ali Carter. Hamilton also qualified for the Welsh Open, but lost 2–4 to Stephen Maguire in the last 32. Hamilton played in nine of the ten Players Tour Championship events this season, with his best result coming in the Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy, where he defeated George Marter, Ryan Causton, Andrew Higginson, Michael Wasley and Mark Selby, before losing 3–4 to John Higgins in the semi-finals. This performance helped him to finish 34th on the PTC Order of Merit, outside of the top 26 who qualified for the Finals. Hamilton's season ended when he lost 4–10 to Dechawat Poomjaeng in the third qualifying round of the World Championship.