I can see you!

Have you played at all before you opened these tables? Are you sure you haven't played at the affected table recently (within the ratholing time interval, however much that is)?

Cause if I join a table, play a hand, leave it, and then open a table, I get sat back at the same table and I can see all the players immediately (if someone didn't take my seat to fill up the table). Now technically you could exploit this, by playing an orbit at all the tables and then rejoin them from time to time to see if any target has joined. But ultimately the whole thing is kind of a gimmick anyway 

@FeelsBadMan

    Definitely not played at all. I open table 1, immediately click sit out before I play anything, open another 5 tables, I'm sat out at all of them and not played a hand. On 5 tables all other avatars are hidden as normal, one table I can see the avatars. This time it was on the third table opened whole the other two were showing the green play button, so even if I'd somehow inadvertently played the first hand on table one (very rarely the timing is such that I'm dealt in the BB the 1st hand ) I definitely have not played on the 3rd table where players are visible. It has happened in the past when in the middle of a session. I sit out on the three tables I'm on, maybe because I have a big stack on one table or all the recs have left one and I want a new table. When I am sat out on all three tables I open 3 new ones, not closing any first as I know I'll probably come straight back to that one and that is not the intention. Two show no avatars as normal, on one I can see the players. This has happened twice, the first time some weeks ago, the second on Thursday and the latest at the very beginning of the session on Friday. As I said it's purely  a visual thing but now when I'm starting play or trying to find a new table I have the screenshot in place and maybe I'll catch a shot. 

   Actually I've just thought of confirmation that I hadn't played a hand.  

  As can be seen on the table the screen shot was taken at 10:18. I played my first hand of the day at 10:19.

   So far a visual thing only and very rare, I'll keep watching.   

This morning it happened again, becoming less rare as 3 days in a row now. 

   As can be seen, no hands played but aliases showing on one table. 

   I loaded six tables sitting out after the first one. The names appeared on table 1 at 3:47 but I didn't notice till about 5 mins. Checking back I don't see me doing anything out of the ordinary. I just let the counter run down and all tables closed normally. 

 The above was the second attempt today, the first I loaded the 6 tables, picked three and started playing, seeing nothing unusual.I've a feeling the avatars only show if sitting for a while doing nothing but that is only a feeling. 

With the help of @GR1ZZL3R's video I think with around 90% certainty we have figured out what is going on. Seems like the names and avatars get revealed the moment the SB is missing due to the person that was BB previously busting or sitting out or leaving the table as you can see in the bottom table of my video, and in @GR1ZZL3R's video and I had one more example where a 3 handed table turned into 2 handed which was likely the same scenario. 

Kinda smells like when the SB is missing it goes on a branch of the server code that either has not been updated to included the hidden avatars part of the code or just switches the boolean that deals with that for some reason. (100% it's server code because otherwise the client doesn't even receive any identifying information about the players)

It's very likely that this has nothing to do with you sitting out or with the time you sitout, the sitting out just increases the probability of encountering the bug due to having the avatars hidden for longer. It also seems like a low prio bug because it can't be reproduced intentionally, it just happens as a result of specific table actions out of your control.

Added logs in the hidden section with the unaffected tables filtered out, even though I don't think the logs reveal anything extra than what I have described. You can see at 14:14:38 the hidden players switching to visible players.

Tough case, but you managed to crack it  Thanks guys!

I'll get it added to the backlog, as a low priority item, given the small impact. For now, it'd just be to figure out the complexity of fixing it. 

    Nice one @FeelsBadMan I felt it would be a tough one to crack because when I've seen it happen I'm not aware of actually doing anything to cause it, intentionally or not. I suppose most players will fire up tables and play from the start, so sitting out had an unintended side effect. Knowing how code works must help, can't say I'd have spotted that.