 Li was entered into the wildcard round of the China Open as an amateur player for three consecutive years from 2006.He lost at this stage in 2006 and 2008, but in 2007 he beat Ian Preece 5–4 to reach the first round of a ranking event for the first time, where he lost 1–5 to 1997 world champion Ken Doherty.In April 2008, Li won the ACBS Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship with a 6–1 success over Li Yuan in the final.