(ok 3.3.9) query for table "level" causes strange display

When omitting backticks around the table name "level" in the sql query box the results page displays different than in case you surrounded the table name with backticks. Example: compare SELECT * FROM level with SELECT * FROM `level`. The results page of the backtick query contains the default 30 results per page, a button to display everything and you can walk thru the table page-by-page. The results page of the non-backtick query pretends to contain the 30 default results, but actually shows *all* results. There are buttons to walk thru the "other" pages, but this is faked as well, they actually show the same content again and again. And the "display all" button is missing from the page (which makes sense as it *is* displaying all).
I first thought it might happen in all cases where I omit backticks, but it really seems to occur only if the table name is "level". I checked the reserved words list for MySQL and "level" is not on it.