Burns first match as a professional was a 3–5 defeat to Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon in qualifying for the 2012 Wuxi Classic.&lt;ref name="2012/13"&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; Burns reached the final qualifying round for the first time when attempting to reach the UK Championship. he defeated Michael Leslie, Kurt Maflin and Anthony Hamilton before being beaten 2–6 by Dominic Dale. Burns did come through four qualifying rounds to play in the main draw of a ranking event for the first time at the World Open, in Haikou, China. He defeated Saleh Mohammad 5–1 in the wildcard round, before losing by the same scoreline to top 16 player Barry Hawkins in the last 32.