I think it explains this in the help section somewhere, but it took some help from Corey for me to see this . . . lets see, its section 8.1.1 and you will see the "if" function in the bottom of the box with a bunch of other functions that can be used in points formulas.
For "if" there are 3 parameters and for the example of:
+if(r=1,3,0)
it means that "if the rank is 1 (1st place), then return the number 3, otherwise return the number zero".
So, if a person gets a rank of "1" then the whole condition returns the number "3" and it turns into:
+3 (so 3 points get added to that persons score). If a person gets any other rank, then the condition returns the number "0" and it turns into:
+0 (zero points get added)
So, for +if(r=2,2,0):
if the rank is 2 (second place), then add +2, othewise, +0
And for +if(r=3,1,0):
if the rank is 3 (3rd place), then add +1, otherwise, +0
Essentially I give the 1st place person an extra 3 points, 2nd place an extra 2 points, and 3rd place an extra point. Everybody else starts out with 2 points and gets one point for each place up the ladder they climb.
With 10 people it works out to (without hits, rebuys, add-on point changes):
1st, 14.00
2nd, 12.00
3rd, 10.00
4th, 8.00
5th, 7.00
6th, 6.00
7th, 5.00
8th, 4.00
9th, 3.00
10th, 2.00
For a tourney with 11 people it works out to:
1st, 15.00
2nd, 13.00
3rd, 11.00
4th, 9.00
5th, 8.00
6th, 7.00
7th, 6.00
8th, 5.00
9th, 4.00
10th, 3.00
11th, 2.00
Make sense?
It is impressive how complex you could make these formulas - but fun to come up with different schemes.
Hope that helps.